Art(e)Fact - 'system of objects'

Art(e)Fact - 'system of objects'


Having had the experience of working within the museum framework for a number of years, the notion of gathering objects (dolls) for "display" highlights the fact that collecting/collections are a crucial process of western identity formation. As children the small ritual of collecting (dolls/toy soldiers) becomes an exercise in 'how to make the world one's own'. 'Identity', whether cultural or personal presupposes acts of collecting and gathering up possessions, a kind of wealth of objects, knowledge, memories and experience and because the 'self' must possess and cannot have it all, one learns to select, order and classify.

I have exhibited these small 'kewpie dolls' extensively on numerous platforms throughout the past years including collaborative work with fellow artists. Whether these ' artefacts' find themselves in curio cabinets, private living rooms, museums, fine art display - they function within a capitalist "system of objects" (Baudrillard 1968) to which I have attached my own value and meaning.

Patricia Davison argues that all art are artefacts, in the sense of being culturally produced, including the fact that the notion of fine art is itself an artefact of western thought.