YOU’RE NOT A COLLECTOR
November 2nd, 2008Or: Five months is not enough.
At the gallery dinner hosted by Barbara Thumm (link) at art forum Berlin (just after the opening of the exhibition of a huge work by Fernando Bryce (link)), Barbara came over and said to me: „I have been thinking about you a lot since yesterday and I came to the conclusion that when you decided to start collecting contemporary art, you haven’t actually changed anything. You’re still collecting science fiction. Not contemporary art.”
The night before Barbara had joined us for the first Independent Collectors Dinner, where I gave a report about my first five months of collecting. During the speech I mentioned my passion for collecting science fiction literature. And yes, maybe Barbara has a point.
(This is my dinner speech, by the way.)
My collection includes one work with a direct tie to a major science fiction work, namely Kris Martin’s “End point of Time Machine (H.G. Wells)”. Two other works have something to do with stars and the universe.
Barbara also said that the works I collect are very literary. Which would be true, had I bought Sven Johne instead of Kris Martin, although the works themselves would have been very different.
The easy way out is to quote Wilhelm Schürmann who says that you can only collect yourself. Looking at my fictious collection however, I realized that the reason why all my works bare a resemblance to science fiction is that when I have to decide between two works that will both ruin me, I’m more inclined to take the one with a link to science fiction. Kris Martin’s “13 Idiots” for example has nothing to do with science fiction at all. Is it still a literary work? I’m not sure.
Right there in that moment, Barbara had caught me off guard. Right now, with a night of proper sleep in between me and the fair, I think that my collection will develop further away from science fiction over time. Five months is not enough to leave familiar tracks. Still, her remark was a very useful and interesting one to ponder about.
Other than that, art forum Berlin was awesome. I will post a bunch of pictures of works I liked next week.
November 20th, 2008 at 4:56 pm
It is very interested the quote “you can only collect yourself”, it can be infered as a kind of analisys of yourself, in the continuos look of who we are, and in the art is more implicit, also in the kind of books that we have. I guees that you are starting to collect but not to see, so I wont be surprised if you continue to buying that kind of work, and if it is, what is the problem? For me is a little bit absurbd just collecting contemporary art as if you have to have a list of what you have to have.
November 24th, 2008 at 7:56 pm
Hi,
I wouldn´t give up on your science-fiction interest just because Barbara Thumm has made a comment about your works being too literal. It´s just her opinion, and she is a gallery owner. Go and talk to curators, art critics, and artists and hear what they have to say.
Now, there are really exiting artists working with science-fiction or related topics. A good show coinciding with Art Forum Berlin was “Mega-Structure Reload. Visionary Architecture and Urban Design of the Sixties Reflected by Contemporary Artists” curated by Sabrina van del Ley and Markus Richter.
And there are many artists working on different levels and using different supports like design, video, photography, installation… reflecting on this what I would call “Retro-Futurism”.
The only thing I would suggest is try to be very focused and develop some sub-themes within it. But don´t abandon this topic as it´s really exciting. Besides, there aren´t any collections as far as I know focused on this concept.
I will be so boldly to recommend you my book “The Art Fair Age” published by CHARTA (you can find it cheap on amazon.com) in which I recommend a.o. a series of guidelines for collecting and even a collector´s motivation´s pyramid.
All the best,
Paco Barragán
independent curator and small collector
November 25th, 2008 at 11:11 am
Hola Paco,
thanks for your note but let me clarify that Barbara’s comment was in no way intended to put me off anything. I really appreciate her personally and I believe her comment was designed to challenge me. Another thing I really appreciate and I want to apologize to her if that didn’t become clear in my post.
But enough of the nice words, let me answer content-wise. While I like science-fiction oriented art, I would actually go even further in the direction of literature rather than visual SF. Visual SF like retro-futurism is over-represented in my opinion. What kicks me is words and writing and how artists deal with that.
On the other hand I think it is essential for me as a young collector to have my ideas, my tastes and my likes challenged. It’s so much more exciting to have to be able to explain why or why not you have s specific artwork and if you are made to go beyond “because I like it”.
For me, collecting is an investment in myself, in my personal evolution. Dude, this sounds philosophic but it’s true to a certain extent. Sticking with SF and focussing on it would narrow me down to a topic I’m familiar with. I want to expand my horizon.
So I will probably do both. Stick with art influenced by SF literature AND veer away from it.