Collectors

Collectors by Anne Zahalka looks at the nature of collecting and the important part it plays in peoples lives. Collecting objects has many meanings for each individual often arising from an initial aesthetic appeal. For many collectors the processes involved as part of the act of acquiring becomes an integral feature of the pleasure of collecting. For others it is this found object removed from its original context, recontextualised and placed in the order of a collection which brings satisfaction. Defining a new space and time for it to exist provides a sense of power, ownership and authority. Having other people view the collection legitimises, as well as normalises, the collectors activity. The actual process of arranging, organising and cataloguing of items is a creative and stimulating role. Then there is the caring, cleaning and playing with the collection which further enriches their pleasure. Objects in collections function mnemonically reminding the collector of particular events and times in their lives. Often they have nostalgic value and are evidence of how things used to be, a lost past preserved within a
private sphere. 

It is these aspects of collecting which is of interest to Zahalka' s photographic studies of Collectors. The attention she has paid previously to people and their possessions (seen recently in her lightbox images from Open House at the MCA) seems a natural path for her to have pursued. The interior and the arrangement of the owners objects has provided the incentives to look more closely at what the occupants collect and how they choose to display them. The idea that objects and possessions are intrinsically tied up with ones identity has been a preoccupation in her work and has been particularly important to her enquiry into portraiture. Understanding the value attached to these objects has an important sociological and cultural dimension not fully explored in her earlier work. In her Collectors series she delves further into the personal meanings of objects to reveal the significant place they hold for each individual. The desire to possess these objects, and the compulsion to have more, goes far beyond any normal materialist need. It is the collector, aware of having stepped over the line who allows further immersion into the process and pleasures of collecting.