Artists Texts 2

Second of artists texts is by Emma Bolland, who has also been selected for AXIS's 'Future 50'

Anti-Collection

The accretion of objects implies a longing, a wish, a desire for reminders and punctuation’s of life. A collector, looking through their hoard, will allow their eyes to rest on this object or that, and recall the moment and place of its finding, the pleasures and difficulties of its acquisition. In this way each object, no matter how precious or rarified its status, becomes a souvenir.
A souvenir is an object that recalls a certain place, occasion or person. It is a memento. The word is French and is the verb ‘to remember’, from the Latin ‘subvenire’ – to come to mind. Broken down still further, from ‘sub’ – up to, and ‘venire’ – to come. This latter evocation: to come, to come up, to come again has an overt sexual overtone which is masculine in its themes of rising and taking, and of the pleasures and excitements inherent therein. It is no accident that the greatest pleasure in the recalling and retaking of the acquisitory act takes place before a witness, an audience, another. A collection must be shown and shared and known about for its potential to be fulfilled.
I do not collect – I discard. For me, collecting evokes the twofold terror of attachment and storage, both of a physical and psychic kind. I fear the accretion of and the attachment to objects and evocations that may clutter and complicate my life. And yet I am jealous of those who can acquire, who can ‘come up’ and take and take again. Is this a form of Penis Envy? Perhaps one day I will start a collection of my own. A set of good objects to take and keep, to take my pleasures with them over and over again. I will caress and fondle, order and display, catalogue and build until my well of pleasures is running over.
Emma Bolland 2008