The Twenty-First Century Curiosity Shop: Artists to look at - Michael Landy

Film to watch - '9' by Shane Acker

Set in a post apocalyptic world where machines have taken over from humans all that remains are a group of mechanical puppets bought to life by their former maker. In this ominous landscape, under the evil scrutiny of a machinic dog their survival is rooted in their resourcefulness. Making use of old and disused objects of the human world they adapt these curious forms to create traps, weapons, tools and trinkets to protect them from the world outside.

Whilst watching the clip think about....

- ...the setting – where is it? When is it?

- What objects do you notice?

- What do the objects tell you?

What is a collection?

–noun

1. the act of collecting.

2. something that is collected; a group of objects or an amount of material accumulated
in one location, esp. for some purpose or as a result of some process:
a stamp collection; a collection of unclaimed hats in the checkroom.

3. the works of art constituting the holdings of an art museum: a history of the museum and of the collection.

4. the gathered or exhibited works of a single painter, sculptor, etc.: an excellent Picasso collection.

5. collections, the various holdings of an art museum organized by category,
as painting, sculpture, works on paper, photography, or film: the director of the collections.

6. the clothes or other items produced by a designer, esp. for a seasonal line: the spring collection.

7. a sum of money collected, esp. for charity or church use.

8. Manège. act of bringing
or coming into a collected attitude.

Why do we collect things?
Is it because these things have value?
If so who to?

Collections can be personal and universal, private and public but what warrants
an object's place within a collection?

EXAMPLES OF COLLECTIONS:

Monday, 24 May 2010

Artists to look at - Michael Landy - Installation

Michael Landy's - Art Bin at the South London Gallery

Collection or Counter-Collection?

From the artist who destroyed his possessions to free himself from the consumerist strong-hold in which values are dependent upon objects, comes a similar project the Art Bin. Tackling the notion of failure Michael Landy asked artists such as Tracy Emin and Mark Titchner to donate to the Bin work they deamed a 'failure'. Consequently what materialised was a pile of artistic rubbish that prior to binning had been consciously kept for reasons of emotional attachment. What Landy questions is why we uphold emotional connections to these objects? By throwing away our failures are we cleansing ourselves, or are we banishing that which serves to remind us of our weaknessses? There is something honest about this public display of failure that in some way provokes in the viewer a sense of relief that no one is picture perfect.

Is this a collection? - If we think of a collection as a collation of things we intend to be kept then is the Art Bin the antithisis of this?

Is this a counter-collection? - If the Art Bin is literally a collection of objects whose purpose it is to be destroyed, then does this piece act as a counter-collection using what it means to collect as a way of acting against it? - Objects collected under the notion of 'failure' and destroyed on this basis too.

See links below:

South London Gallery - Michael Landy - Art Bin 2010
BBC News - 'Man 'destroys' life for Art'