Summer homework

Over the summer we're to fill a sketchbook on the theme of "collections". The aim is to get us going to galleries, of course, but also to help us find out what's important to us, what we can use for our personal work.

Here's the rationale: "Collecting can be seen as a hobby or complete mania. It can be innocent or completely obsessive. We all collect in one way or another, and sometimes what we collect can surprise ourselves as well as others. For this project you will be working rom a collection that can be as wide, diverse, and varied as you want it to be. It may not be your collection but it must be a collection that you find interesting and be physically accessible. Think about ideas associated with collections - dispaly, arrangement, pattern repetition, seriality. Things that you collect wiususlaly have apersonal meaning for you and pefully your work will take on a personal meaning too."

Last year the Tate did some leaflets about different ways of collecting - or rather, classifying - pictures:Till 23 August, Tate Britain has an interesting free exhibition called "Classified". As an ex-librarian, I found it fascinating. In the first room, ticking metronomes round the walls, and in the middle, the display cabinet with Mark Dion's finds from the banks of the Thames in 1999 (yes it's ok to open the drawers). There's Damien Hirst's "Pharmacy" too. Its final room contains "The Chapman Family Collection" - amusing and thought-provoking -- which brings to mind Henry Wellcome's extensive collection, on display at the Wellcome Institute on Euston Road.

Getting back to the homework brief: "Research other artists or designers who have worked with collections and keep visual and written notes, including examples of thier work. Some artists: Giorgio Morandi, Joseph Cornell, Robert Rauschenberg, Andy Warhol, Michael Craig Martin, Lisa Milroy, Fiona Rae, Philip Taffe, Ellen Gallagher, Andrew Grassie, Fred Tomaselli, Mark Wallinger, Anja Gallacio, Grayson Perry, Rachel Whiteread, Susan Hillier, Darren Almond, Daniel Liebeskind, Ieoh Ming Pei, Maya Lin, Sue Lawty, Deirdrie Nelson, Shirley Chubb."

Two book recommendations: Art and Artifact: The museum as a medium, and Deep Storage: Collecting, storing and archiving in art.

And some online resources:

http://www.artthrob.co.za/01june/news.html

www.artmuseums.harvard.edu/sketchbooks/

www.aaa.si.edu/guides/site-visual/index.cfm

more sketch books at these sites

http://www.artsjournal.com/artopia/2006/01/rauschenbergs_combines.html

Art from recycled materials:

http://www.johndahlsen.com/lastest_installation.html

Posters:

http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/posters

http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/turnerprize/history

Shirley Chubb website: http://www.thinkingpath.org.uk/