Coll3ct

About

Coll3ct explores the theme of personal collections by a dozen artists and is the third exhibition in the series to be shown in SPACE and Eldon Gallery at the University of Portsmouth. From Girls Aloud memorabilia to a collection of faults, from fanzines to a cabinet of rulers, this unique exhibition reveals an individual approach to a personally chosen set of objects. Many of us might consider the collections as companions to our emotional lives; they may be provocations for others to make connections, and the conversations they hold when viewed become the starting point for more discussion; do objects and collections speak? The exhibition is accompanied by a symposium, lecture and workshop over two days on 23-24 March 2011, reflecting on the history, culture and aesthetic appeal of collecting to both professional and private collectors. A key theme of this year's symposium is the exposure of the personal narrative through collecting. "To collect is to write a life" wrote William Davies King (Collections of Nothing, 2008, University of Chicago Press). He feels that we can read the collector within the collections, and not just in the finished articles (is a collection ever complete?) but in the business of acquiring, maintaining and displaying them. What is it that continues to fascinate us? Is it the physicality of the real object, or the narratives that it evokes, connecting the collector to the past and to the present? For more information please visit http://www.port.ac.uk/research/caad/collect3/ contact Denise Callender, tel. 023 9284 5197 or Denise.Callender@port.ac.uk