Overheard & Interviews

A write up of stuff heard at Stampex (see previous post), I once had a customer, he's dead now, but we went to auctions together. Henry was a millionaire, and I would spend three grand on the business and he would spend thirty on his personal collection, & I asked him what was the best bit for him? Was it finding the right stamp at the right price, or just the right stamp, or putting it in the album or looking at it. He said the best bit was crossing it of his list.

Animals? Birds? Eagles? Bald Eagles? Do you have any?

Collecting is an opiate, it charms and gets in your blood & you're finished.

The stranger things are more interesting, when compared to the rarer stamps. All you can say about them is, well they're rare. At least the stranger ones are interesting.

Many wise people collect the envelopes- single stamps are intrinsically worthless bits of paper, but the envelope gives the use and history of the stamp.

It's in your hand one moment and then you don't know where then into the person you sent it to.

It's all National Trust bags, F1 T-shirts, Insignias, Beards & Boxes (me).

Stampex

I went to the Business Design Centre for Stampex, the British National Stamp Exhibition. So many stamps. So many old men. Didn't manage to get quite the interview material I had hoped for but once I'd decided to treat it as an observation thing and as research it was great. The catagorisation of stuff was mental. A map led to a stand which declared itself as 'specialist in Maritime Stamps and Postal History' and then this had a catalogue which referred you to a box or album, which was split into price, or country, or date, or whatever and then the stamp was presented often with it's own label underneath it within these. The tools element was also present: tweezers, magnifying tools, and shoulder bags for albums. The stamp with the tiger on it shown here I like, as it shows how the collector gets these special contexts which the regular user or reciever wouldn't.

Newcastle Review

It's always good to get away and Newcastle always clears my head. I remembered when i was in m&s that i hate shops- too big, too much shit- i'm aint no hippy or nothing but this was weird:wine should not be sold next to boxers. no. I also spotted this- lol and a half: Also checked out the latest exhibition at the Baltic which was Yoko Ono, i love the Baltic and some of Yoko's stuff i enjoyed- these fixed cups,  and her ideas for installations, architecture and paintings were great (i like that the ideas were enough, that there was enough description involved that you understood the concept and what the general gist would be of the piece without it being made) unfortunatley some of the ideas had been done and they didn't feel good. I feel that when my mum talks about 'Art' and 'Artists' being highbrow and unknowable and incomprehensible with that tone that people do sometimes- she's talking about Yoko Ono, hippy, lovey, peacey, cheesey, and pretty tacky pieces- hang your wish on a tree, same picture with abstract and pseudo meaningful legends- sort of junk- kind of felt like alot of the cheesey new relgious prayer and interactive worship stuff that I was once invovled in but without the acceptable pretence of religion. Rant over.

Wellcome Collection

So I went to the Wellcome Collection in Euston yesterday and it was probably the best exhibition I've ever been to. Mainly the permanent collection part with all of Henry Wellcome's bits and pieces. There was some great artifacts for sure but the best thing was the way it was displayed and the way the viewer interacted with the exhibit. There were drawers with extra information and for the display cases there were sort of cupboards which sat flush with the wooden wall and were very discreet, almost like you had to discover them, which had more detailed data about the articles being displayed in front of them (behind you if you were looking at he cupboard) and a little more history ad dates and stuff- kinda like some meta data or something the cases had enough information that you understood the artifacts (a guillotine blade for example) and then more information could be obtained which gave even more insight to the piece- (used in the french revolution, how many people it killed, the last person it killed, it was considered humane etc). The exhibition had the feeling that i want to embody in my work- wonder and discovery and levels of information and quality (everything was quite dark and there was a lot of wood on the walls and displays).

Henry Wellcome was an interesting guy too- he was a proper accumulator, in the collection is the first bit of money he ever earned- was it just for posterity or some foresight that he knew it would be interesting later on- the guy collected like a fiend and it is perhaps an interesting thing to think about money and collecting. The guy only got to have a collection because he had the space to put the things he had bought in. (I keep thinking about this private to institution type collection- the walsall gallery did it with their 'Peoples Exhibition' of th public's collections, it was ages ago and i never saw it but i would like to see it again- maybe i could set one up. So Wellcome had the passion and, not randomness or indiscriminancy, but the variety and diversity of a private collector but the money,space and influence of an institution.)

Seizure

A great temporary installation in a condemned flat in Elephant & Castle by Roger Hiorns. The whole flat was filled with copper sulphate solution and as a result (I'm missing out alot of time and process but this is the jist) crystals formed on all the surface- baths, light fittings- very special and everyone should go see it before the close on the 30th Nov.

Horniman Museum

I think it's my new favourite place.

Notes on... things i've seen

I went to the John Soane museum at the weekend as i heard he was a collector extraordinaire- there was books and marble everywhere, hanging off every wall- the place seemed to drip and it was awesome. I especially liked the way he catalogued stuff, every thing seemed to be in it's place and had little numbers on things- one room which caught my attention was one where the walls could either slide, or were hinged or something and behind the wall covered in paintings were more paintings- layers of collecting is nice. Links in nicely to my stuff with storage and display. I should also reflect on the bottom drawer exhibition we went to at John Soane's Pitzhanger Manor in Ealing. A great exhibition which looked alot at collecting and display and the way the objects we keep are interacted with. All the stuff from the loft was placed in 2 rectangles on the floor of the gallery and it was weird to see the collection in an order but not be able to be seen or investigated, it had been carefully placed but in piles or on top of each other to invite you to view from different angles- there were also photos from exhibitors homes on the walls- of the things they kept and had either stored or displayed. The pictures picked up tiny idiosyncrasies and detailed the subtle, interesting banality of the homes, they really gave a feeling as to the exhibitors character and what they found important.

I also went to Modern Art Oxford at the weekend- very good, (and some beautiful identity and poster work for the museum i have to say) It was curated well with no explanation as you went round and then a 15 minute documentary with the curator and the artists about the work- that's the way i like it. The work being shown was by Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller and was teh sweet. My favourite piece was a sculpture called 'The Killing Machine' and it started with a big red button with a spotlight that you had to press to start it and then there was a light and a speaker moving around this big frame and these robotic arms began to observe and look investigatively at this reclining electric type chair. The music crescendo after a while and the robot arms began to attack the chair with pneumatic pistons- i make it sound whack but it was awesome- the music created this narrative effect, the robots seemed very real, or had personalities or whatever due to their form and also their lights which behaved like eyes, and the best part was the shadow which was cast on wall which was horrifically menacing and scary. Good art. It seems more relevant than it did at the time in relation to my project, when i think about pinning butterflies to boards and about the button at the beginning and the choice/ viewer initiated horror.

Tate Liverpool

I went to see the Gustav Klimmt exhibition at Tate Liverpool and whilst i have to confess to not being that into Klimmt, the other exhibition : a mini retrospective of 'contemporary' art, was sweet. There were examples from loads of chill dudes, from Andy Warhol to Sarah Lucas  (i know that isn't all art or whatever but it was a good selection i thought.) Anywho, the best thing was that the Tate encourages kids to draw the arts and stuff. It has guys handing out paper and crayons and then collecting drawings from the kids and it was great watching the guy recieve their submissions "oh what a brilliant Mondrian." to the kids with squares and red, and to everyone elses incomprehensible squiggles "Is that a Pollock?". Priceless.