Abstract:
There is a certain kind of intimacy experienced when you can hold something in your hand. Even if I couldn't articulate what that was at four or five years old, I was aware of its pull. I have always been a picker-upper, an admirer of objects. Coupled with a resourceful mind, this tendency often leads to not only admiring objects, but acquiring them as well. Anyone close to me knows I do my fair share, and so do hundreds of thousands of other people in our society. I wanted to use my thesis exhibition opportunity to work within the context of human/object relationships. Through experimenting with installation and display of gathered and manipulated materials, I attempted to convey a more delicate and admirable take on several methods of accumulation.
Having accepted my own inclination to acquire, I began exploring various relationships between people and their things. Antique malls and yard sales were visited with a different kind of discerning eye. Why do we buy the things we buy and keep the things we keep? What is it about possessing that has so many of us hooked? My thesis exhibit loosely addressed these questions.
I worked with mostly borrowed, salvaged, or thrifted items, characteristic of my personal favorite means of acquiring. The exhibit consisted of seven pieces exploring various means of accumulation that worked together to encourage a new perspective for viewers to understand collective tendencies. Confronting and exploiting these tendencies was personally therapeutic and worked to bring light to behaviors that deserve more positive attention.
