Loss. meaning and absence in personal collections

Abstract

This study explores how a narrative view of collecting can be expanded and applied to Ilya and Emilia Kabakov’s installations, as well as to my own artworks. It focuses on personal and intimate collections of everyday objects that serve to edify their owner’s sense of being. The project is undertaken in order to arrive at new interpretations of the themes of loss, meaning and absence through Mieke Bal’s (2006) narrative theory, Susan Pearce (1994) and Mikhail Epstein’s (1995) methods of collecting and Jean Baudrillard’s (1996) notions of the collector. These theories are applied to selected installations from the Kabakovs’ series Ten Characters. My own exhibition, S(h)elves, is an exploration of collections, underpinned by conceptually relevant theories. Conclusions are reached by means of literary analysis and comparison of selected theorists and artworks. A reflexive approach to art-making means that theories inform art-making processes while practical developments facilitate re-evaluated perceptions which lead to new insights.