RIS ID
68160
Abstract
Mapping a collection
A collection is never fixed, and any identifiable collection is greater than the sum of its parts. As Susan Stewart comments: "while we can 'see' the entire collection, we cannot possibly 'see' each of its elements." (On Longing: Narratives of the Miniat ure, the Gigantic, the Souvenir, the Collection, Baltimore and London: John Hopkins University Press, 1984, p.152). The Otago Polytechnic School of Art collection database lists 836 items, but this is not a complete record. There are other works that have perhaps fallen t hrough crilcks, while some works listed in the database may even dispute their own inclusion. Susan Pearce makes the suggestion that" perhaps the real point is that a collection is not a collection until someone thinks of it in those terms." ("The Urge to Collect" in Interpreting Objects and Collections, ed. Susan Pearce, London and New York: Routledge, 1994, p.158)
Publication Details
Ballard, S. (2000). 'Aureliae: 800 works from the Otago Polytechnic School of Art'. Logan Park Art Gallery, 7 October - 10 November, Dunedin, New Zealand: Logan Park Art Gallery.