Art on the Underground: The Stratford Hoard

An exhibition I saw in London recently...

In the lead up to the 2012 Games, Art on the Underground are delivering a series of contemporary art commissions in Stratford that have individuals and communities at their heart. Alan Kane has been commissioned to produce a new work for 2008. It is estimated that one in four adults in the developed world could be considered to be collectors or to have a collection of some sort. What people collect is entirely influenced by their individual circumstances and tastes.

Collections can be seen as personal histories or self portraits created through the accumulation of objects. A collection of collections from one area could therefore be considered as a unique image of a particular place at a particular time. The Stratford Hoard extends Alan Kane’s fascination with the process of researching, finding, categorising and displaying a wide range of objects from the valuable to the obscure. Not a collector himself – although he could be described as a collector of collectors! – Kane’s practice as an artist generates complex perceptions of specific places or individuals.

Each collection reveals infinite relationships between individual objects; connections that the audience might add to through their own associations and memories. A fascinating cache of collections from people who live nearby or have an association with the station, will be revealed at Stratford station. Images by Alan Kane.