Personality Project: Day One

Last week we were briefed on the personality project and were asked to bring in 5-7 items that we felt represent a part of our personality. I brought in a hat that belonged to my great grandmother, two travel cards that my mum kept from my first and second birthday, a book about Seychelles (where my dad is from) that my grandma gave me, a photo of a club in Paris in the 1920s, and a novel that belonged to my mum when she was young and she gave to me.
I started by doing a mind map about my items. This was useful because it made me think about more than just my objects and instead what they represented and how they made me feel. It also gave me key words and phrases which I can then research further so that my project is about more than just the objects. The words that I picked out were possessions, things that define us, memories, crowded, claustrophobic, freedom and distractions.

I was a little lost about where to go after this so I spoke to one of my tutors and she gave me some really interesting ideas. She noticed that a lot of my items were things that most people would've thrown away, especially use I don't use them anymore. We started talking about collecting things and how when this gets out of hand it can lead to hoarding. It made think about how maybe I am a bit of a hoarder because I like to keep things.

I did some research and found a book about an exhibition at the Barbican in february called Magnificent Obsessions: The Artist as Collector. It was an exhibition which showed the collections of 14 different artists. It was really interesting to read this book because there were interviews with the artists which talked about why people, artists in particular collect, and how these collections can influence their work.

I did some more research into hoarding and also claustrophobia and found some really interesting photographers and artists who address these subjects. I made a concept board with images that depict my chosen themes and I'm going to further research these concepts.