Visiting the Exhibition Space

Today we met with Matthew Andrew to view and discuss ideas for the exhibition space, and how we planned to renovate it. At the beginning of my degree show, I was under the impression I would be exhibiting at MediaCityUK, and visited the last years photograph exhibition before the summer to look into how they had presented their work. However, this year, we have been moved to Allerton building on main campus, to a large room with extensions built on.

At the moment, the area looks run down and dirty, but I am sure if the course pulls together, we can make the exhibition space amazing! We discuss the plan to paint the walls white, with the hanging space painted 50% grey. I planned to hang my work on a white background, so this has changed my plan. I will now need to revisit framing shops, and consider a different colour of frame to exhibit my images in, because brown wood would clash greatly with grey paint.

Matthew suggested with research into the Lux Locus degree show at Free Range in London last year, (which will be my next blog post), which was mounted on a 50% grey background, to see how they framed their images and presented them.

Panoramic of the second room

Second room

Planned projection room

First room

Framing Research

I decided to visit two places, that were in budget, to research into framing and pricing. I have decided to frame my images in plain coloured frames, with a small border around the edge. I first visited Tesco, where they sell different sizes of frames, up to A3. I particularly liked their selection of small bordered frames, which came indivually but matched as a set. At the moment, I am leaning towards natural wood coloured frames, but this might change to black depending on how my final images come out.

I am also considering his style of frame (shown above), however when I visited, they only had 8x10 frames which are not big enough, in accordance with what I previously discussed. However, financial problems may mean I have to cut down the size of my planned prints a fraction. I will keep you updated next week as to what I decide!

The Heads Experiment

After meeting with potential subjects for this project, I met up with a character who collected buttons and receipts, as mentioned in my previous blog post. She expressed her concern about being photographed, as she is a high up figure in the local political body, and being so close to election time, the photographic series may bring bad press towards herself as a person and as a candidate. I completely in understanding about this, and have decided to experiment with an alternative way of overcoming this. After looking into the sculptural work of Jeremy Underwood, I have decided to create a sculpture head to represent one of my subjects, with the intention of experimenting with this further.

I created a head based on her collection addiction, as she refers to it. I managed to persuade her to give me a selection of buttons that she has collected over a number of years, but only the ones that she has duplicates of, or does not have an emotional attachment too. I understand, after meeting her a number of times over a month, that she has a severe emotional attachment to her collection, and gets anxiety if she cannot find her entire collection.

I created this head to represent how the collection she has been gathering for years is consuming her, hence why I decided to cover half of the face with buttons and half with receipts.  Although she has a fantastic job, and is incredibly successful in her career, if her hoarding continues, there many be a chance of severe emotional distress and unrest in her life, when her collection inevitably takes over. I created this in an attempt to get across to the viewer how hoarding can take over someones life, and take the mind with it.

Upon feedback from Matthew, he was not keen on the concept and said I should re evaluate my project, and consider photographing the collection itself in the subjects homes. I agree, as upon second consideration of this image, the bright colours and artistic nature of this, makes something quite emotional and serious, something fun and colourful. However, this is far from the case. Hopefully, by photographing the homes that the collections are stored in, from all of the subjects I have been communicating with, it will create an interesting and thought provoking series of images.

"Human Debris" by Jeremy Underwood

"Human Debris is a commentary on what humans leave in the natural landscape. The project spotlights the environmental condition of Houston’s waterways through the building of site-specific sculptures assembled out of harvested debris collected from the beach.  Each found material lends itself to a new creation, encompassing the former life of the debris into each sculpture. These objects are simply artifacts to support the work, photographed in interaction with the landscape, then left to be discovered.  This work challenges viewers to reflect upon our consumer culture, the relationship we have with our environment, and the pervasion of pollution."

I have been interested in producing an alternative way to present the problem of hoarding to the subjects who do not wish to have their houses and faces photographed for the public view, especially in the local area. So I have been researching into how I could make sculptures and represent my meaning using art.

http://jeremyunderwood.com/trash-sculpture-public-art/

Printing, Framing and Mounting Research

I have been printing my work through DS Colour Labs in Manchester for my portfolio for the past year, and have been really impressed with the quality of their prints, and the professionalism they have in regards to time it takes to receive your prints and the way they are packaged. This past experience has influenced me to purchase my prints from them, although I have conducted some research into other printing places, and the prices and services they offer.

The nature of my prints means I would like to print them at a dimension of 20 inches by 30 inches in Matte paper. I am undecided yet if I should mount them onto aluminium, or frame them in black frames, but I am sure this will become clearer when I have my meeting with Matthew Andrew on Friday. In the meantime, I have been looking to different printing specialists, as well as places that sell frames locally as well as online.

Printspace

I have had experiences from Printspace in the past, and have heard many good reviews from them as a company. The also print the size that I require at a reasonable price. As well as printing, they offer a mounting and framing service, both of which I am torn between at the moment. As noted below on one of the screenshot, printing takes 2 days, and a few extra days for delivery, so means that I have plenty of time to finish my project and get them printed.

DS Colour Labs

I have bought prints from DS Colour Labs previously, the most recent being my printed portfolio for Professional Frameworks. The professionalism of them as a company is next to non, and I have never been disappointed with the prints they produce. At the moment, they are my number one choice for my prints for my final major exhibition, but this could change as I order sample packs and read more reviews on different printing companies. They also print the size that I am planning to print, and also offer mounting services, with printing on aluminium being an option.

Poster prints is what they call large format prints that they produce. These are slightly cheaper than prints from the Printspace, but only by about £5 so it is negligible. The only problem with DS Colour Lab is they do not offer Matte printing, only 4 types of Satin and 1 type of Ultra Pearl. Their production time is 1-3 days, so the same time as Printspace, and the aluminium printing option is also available. Therefore, I need to conduct some more research into different types of paper and what would work best for me.

Printing on a canvas is something I have not thought about, and think it looks slightly unprofessional, but was interesting to see how much it would be to print at the size I require.

Ikea

Although this frame would not work with my series, as it would be too distracting, but it had made me think about the concept of having an alternative frame, rather than a normal black or white frame.

The Range

I have bought frames from the Range before, most recently for my exhibition at Darwen Library, I have always been impressed with the price paired with the quality. I am going to visit the Range tomorrow to see frames in the size of 20 inches by 30 inches to see if there are any available that are of good enough quality, and made out of wood rather than plastic.

Amazon: The Frame Company

This is the frame I have been mostly interested in so far, and the reviews say that the quality of the product is next to none. The frames look professional, and also come in five different colours; black, white, beech, dark wood and silver. At the moment, I plan to purchase black frames as I feel that it would look more professional.

I plan to write another blog post as to how I plan to print my final images!

Scientific American

I have recently been reading some news articles, talking about the science and history behind compulsive hoarding and collecting. I found a particularly interesting article which touches upon historical references, as well as a social.

"If you had opened the front door of Lee Shuer's apartment in the early 2000s, you would have encountered a narrow hallway made even narrower by all kinds of random stuff: unnervingly tall stacks of books and papers, cardboard boxes full of assorted knickknacks, and two hot pink salon hair dryer chairs with glass domes suspended from their arched necks. Sidling down the hallway to the right, you would have reached Shuer's bedroom. The door would have opened just wide enough for you to squeeze inside, where you would have seen mounds of stuff three to four feet high on the floor, bed and every available surface. A typical heap might have contained clothes, a violin case, a big box of Magic Markers, record albums, a trumpet, a framed picture, a package of socks, three dictionaries, two thesauruses and a pillow."

Lee Shuer was documented by this article, in an attempt to bring to light the process of letting go of possessions when you have hoarding since your childhood. Shuer began collecting when he was younger, and his collection grew in 2000 when he began spending time at car boot sales and thrift shops. He felt a sense of comfort and relaxation, which is something one of my subjects has commented on when I have been speaking to them.

"Today, Shuer, 38, lives with his wife Becca in a three-bedroom house in Easthampton that Shuer describes as 85 percent decluttered. When they first moved into the house in 2006 Shuer brought just about everything from his previous apartments with him. His collection completely filled one of the bedrooms on the second story, so that barely an inch of floor space was visible; it spilled out along the stairways, found resting spots on top of the fridge and kitchen cabinets, crowded the living room and claimed half the basement. Now, their living room needs only a little tidying here and there when guests come over. The stairwell leading to the second story is completely free of mess. The kitchen is for kitchen stuff. And Shuer is making good progress on the basement. Through an innovative series of peer-organized workshops designed to help people with excessive clutter—the Buried in Treasures program—Shuer has learned to catch himself in the act of acquiring something he does not have the space for, to challenge his beliefs about the true value of his possessions, and to gradually get rid of things he does not need without mourning their loss."

Cognitive behavioural therapy is something that people with obsessive hoarding can go under to help them with their habit, but is something that has not been offered on the NHS or through private medical treatment to my subjects. Although their collecting is not severe, I struggle to understand how medical doctors and people cannot refer these people to small trials of this therapy, to combat the issue earlier before it becomes out of control, like some cases do.

"Most psychiatrists would diagnose Shuer with compulsive hoarding, which is defined as the excessive accumulation of stuff and the refusal to discard it, resulting in problematic clutter. In addition to interfering with daily activities such as cooking and sleeping, extreme clutter often increases health risks from poor sanitation, makes it more difficult to get out of the house in a fire or other emergency and puts the hoarder in danger of eviction. Compulsive hoarders often have other mental illnesses as well: 50 percent have major depressive disorder and 48 percent have either anxiety or social phobia, according to various surveys. In recent years the general public has become more aware of hoarding than ever before, thanks in part to shows such as A&E's Hoarders and TLC's Hoarding: Buried Alive. Many researchers and hoarders—who often prefer to call themselves collectors or clutter bugs—argue, however, that such shows focus on extreme examples and that their sensationalism obscures the reality of day-to-day life for most hoarders. Studies published in the last 10 years have changed the way psychologists and psychiatrists think about compulsive hoarding and contradicted a number of popular assumptions about people with extensive clutter."

Obviously, some people have large and excessive collections of items, like my subjects, and they do not interfere with their homes on a large scale, but simply fill one box, or one cupboard, or one room. As mentioned previously, the media can create a negative trait of these people, branding 100% of these people as unhealthy, and suffering from a mental disorder. Although it is true that half of these people suffer from anxiety or depression, there is 50% who do not, and still lead healthy lives.

Freud and other psychologists ran hoarding studies back in the daily 1900's, especially on the case of the Collyer brothers, whom I spoke about in a previous post. The article reads, "In truth, many hoarders live relatively typical lives, hold steady jobs and maintain ties to friends and family, even if their habits create tension." All it takes is one study to show a high percentage of people who have excessive collections to be ruining their lives, and lives of other people they love and care for, for all collectors and hoarders to be tarnished with the same brush.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/real-world-hoarding/

"The Sale of a Lifetime" by Jasper Joffe

After reading about the work of Michael Landy, I decided to focus upon installation artists who look at consumerism and lifelong possessions. I came across the work of Jasper Joffe, who is a painter and artist by trade. He created "The Sale of a Lifetime" exhibition whereby he decided to sell every single thing he owned and start again from scratch.

The exhibition was born from Joffe separating from his long term girlfriend and mother to his child, as well as being no longer represented by a gallery he has worked with for years. He felt like he had hit rock bottom, and the only way to pick himself up and carry on was for him to begin again. At the age of 33, he made this a theme through the sale, labelling sets of his belongings for an asking price of £3,333 each.

"If everything is sold, I will make £109,000, for a life's possession it's not a lot really… When you die people look through all your stuff and probably get rid of most of it… I suppose I hit rock bottom and I realised my life was in crisis, but at the same time I found this kind of freedom. I think by putting everything I own and putting everything on show I can find out where I am with my life..."

After researching into hoarding as a physiological disorder, it has become clear that many people suffering from it have had something significant happen in their lives to spark it. After watching "Hoarder Next Door", one subject suffered the death of his long term partner, and the grief sparked him to be physically unable to let go of items that meant even the slightest bit of significance towards him. After reading about this exhibition, and seeing that many collectors have suffered grief, I need to be careful and considerate with meeting up with my subjects close to the deadline, to make sure I obtain the right images, and leave them in the same state they were when I arrived.

"Break Down" by Michael Landy

Matthew suggested I had a look into the work of Michael Landy, who explored consumerist culture, and his own problem with it. He created a catalogue of every single item he owned; furniture, clothing, ornaments, personal possessions that held important memories, and then destroyed them in a specialist machine. The results, to me, where impressive and really does show how much of a consumerist culture we have become.

"The list took three years to complete and it contained 7,227 items. Then, with the help of a large machine and an overall-clad team of operatives, he set about destroying it all. After two weeks nothing but powder remained." (Artangel, 2001)

Although my series focusses on hoarding and the collection of items, consumerism is a small factor of how people collect items that mean something to them. Photographing these specific items in order, such as the bottom image shown below, might give some meaning to these items, and why the individual feels the need to collect them. I hope experimenting with this concept may bring some meaning to the series, and insight into the individual lifestyle and choices, without giving too much away to the viewer.

http://www.artangel.org.uk//projects/2001/break_down/about_the_project/break_down

"The Rooms Project" by Miranda Hutton

“At 19, I’d never known anyone who had died, with the exception of my grandfather, who’d been old and far away. I’d never been to a funeral. I understood nothing of that kind of loss – of the crumbling of the physical texture of lives lived, the way the meaning of a place could change because those who used to be in it were no longer there. I knew nothing about the hopelessness and the necessity of trying to capture such lives – to rescue them, to keep them from vanishing altogether.”

After my tutorial with Matthew, he suggested I go and photograph the houses and place where the collectors keep their collections, and reveal to the public how this is both a normal, and obsessive thing to do. It became clear during the tutorial that I am collector myself, and was in denial about owning this collecting. I own 2,000 beanie babies that are scattered around my house, in boxes in the attic and around my room. It would be interesting as experimentation to photograph how these people keep their belongings, if they are a big part of their lives, or something they want to keep.

Miranda Hutton is a big inspiration for photographing rooms, after he series titled "The Room's Project", which explores how parents keep the rooms of their children who have died, the same as when they were here. Her work is interesting and has inspired me greatly in terms of actually shooting the series, as she photographs different rooms, but using the same measurements of tripod height and camera angle.

The titles are also very relevant to my work, as they reveal to the viewer much more about who we are looking at rather than what. All of the images are titled in the same way, documenting how long ago they died, when the photograph was taken, and what series it was part of. This would give the viewer content and understanding in a gallery space, and is something I need to think about when presenting my work.

http://www.mirandahutton.co.uk/projects/the-rooms-project/

"Stuff" by Daniel Miller

After reading Daniel Miller's book "The Comfort of Things", I decided to read his other book "Stuff", which looks at consumerism within the human race, and takes us on a journey of our own possessions  and why we feel the need to own material items. The book is a study based on more than thirty years of research conducted in London and India (amongst other places), and gives us a new way to look at our items and how they have began to define us as people.

A lot of the time, people hoard and collect items because they cannot let go. I feel that everyone becomes attach to a certain item, or collection of items, at one point in their lives, that we do not want to get rid of. Daniel Miller says "Stuff is ubiquitous, and problematic…" (page 5), we keep things just because they have an attachment to a particular occasion or memory, rather than keeping them because we need them or they will enhance our lives.

Daniel Miller also comments on the fact owning thing sometimes becomes a matter of life and death, as materialism and owning objects defines us a human beings and sets us apart from each other. Owning a collection of objects, no matter how expensive or inexpensive they are, sets up apart from other people who do not have that collection. It is a talking point, something to be proud of.

"Love Me" by Zed Nelson

"Beauty is a $160 billion-a-year global industry. The worldwide pursuit of body improvement has become a new religion.

We live in a society that celebrates and iconises youth, where the old, the aesthetically average and the fat seem to have been erased from the pages of our glossy magazines, advertising posters and television screens.

The promise of bodily improvement is fuelled by advertising campaigns and a commercially-driven Western media, reflecting an increasingly narrow palette of beauty. The modern Caucasian beauty ideal has been packaged and exported globally, and just as surgical operations to 'Westernise' oriental eyes have become increasingly popular, so the beauty standard has become increasingly prescriptive. In Africa the use of skin-lightening and hair-straightening products is widespread. In South America women have operations that bring them eerily close to the Barbie doll ideal, and blonde-haired models grace the covers of most magazines. Anorexia is on the increase in Japan, and in China, beauty pageants, once banned as 'spiritual pollution', are now held across the country." (Zed Nelson)

After my tutorial with Matthew, he showed me the work of Zed Nelson and how he uses text to collate a series together and link them. Zed looks into the beauty industry, and explores cosmetic surgery, beauty pagents for the young as well as the old, and how people react to the term beauty. Although the series does not flow as a series if just looked at in a gallery, the text that accompanies the images draws them together as a narrative and makes the viewer understand them as a collective. 

In relation to my work, I planned to have the name or contents of the collection as the title, and the work of Zed Nelson has shown me that this is possible, and text can really bring together the exhibition.

UPDATE: Tutorial with Matthew

After being REALLY scared for my tutorial today, as I had no idea where I was heading with this project, I have come out being a lot clearer and have a direct pathway I am going to head for now. I plan to visit the people I have met through collecting and hoarding, and photograph their homes and where they keep their collection. I also plan to continue with my current ideas, which includes photographing people surrounded by their collection as well as having the collection shown on a large scale.

UPDATE: Time Management

My time management has been poor for the past few weeks, and I have completely ignored my strict timetable of academic work, which I said I could not do. I feel now is the time to get myself inspired and into gear with three and a half weeks of the project remaining. I have plans in place tomorrow to take the product shots of my mannequins inspired by the collectors I have been speaking too, as well as the location and subjects in place for my shoot next week at a warehouse space. At the moment, I am struggling to make a decision as to which project has a stronger backing, but I hope that my meeting with Matthew Andrew on Friday morning will help me decide which project to continue exploring in the next few weeks, before the looming deadline.

The Media vs Real Life

I have recently been watching the TV series "Hoarder Next Door" on Channel 4 and "Buried Alive" on TLC which is an American channel. I wanted to personally compare the media's representation of hoarders, and my personal experience of meeting people who suffer from this problem.

Although the people who I have met have no got a hoard as big as the people on this programme, they have spoken about their concern of becoming as bad as the people on this programme. The media always had a habit of making people seem worst than they are, by talking more about their deeper problems such as family deaths and mental issues, as a way to bring meaning to their hoarding problem.

One of my subjects, Dave, collects trading cards, and being at the age where he should be getting married and having a family, some people believe this collection is strange. However, the collection only spans the space of four boxes, he also has other items in his home which he considered to be clutter, but his hoard is tidy and controlled in boxes in his front room. He also comments on the fact their is nothing wrong with him mentally, like the programmes depict them to be, and he has a normal job, with friends and an extensive social life, but he enjoys collecting and hoarding items that interest him.

My next decision is whether to refer to this people has hoarders or collectors.

"Hoarding" - Geoff Johnson & Jennifer McShea

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I have been on the Daily Mail website, and have been looking into the story of Geoff and Jennifer, whose Mother was a compulsive hoarder when they were children, so much so that they moved away from the family home and never returned until she passed away. It was an interesting series to research, and made me feel a strong sense of emotion and understanding about why people struggle so much with a hoarding problem. Although it is not seen as a common illness and mental struggle, hoarding can really take over a person's life and prevent them from living their day to day life.

Geoff and Jennifer photographed their mothers house after she died, and felt a strong sense of emotion and upset that they, themselves, were forced to grow up in a house which was filled with items of worthlessness. They photographed each room, and then Photoshopped their own children into the landscape. I found this to be an emotional series, as it was relates to someone's real life situation that happened in their childhood. I plan to create this sense of emotional relationship between my images and the viewer, and let them walk away wondering about hoarding and collecting as an illness and something that most people experience.

"It's Hardly Noticeable" by John William Keedy

"John William Keedy’s photographs depict a world of unsettling order: a dinner of green peas is tidily kept and grouped in a cluster. A wall of key cards lined up in a grid of rows, with inscriptions and reminders meant for their author’s benefit." (Fast Company, 2013)

This series shows a first person view of some of the issues that stem from having OCD, and the ongoing struggle of people diagnosed with the illness. Some of the images are humorous, whilst some are serious and make the viewer feel uncomfortable. His series really shows the viewer exactly what people with anxiety and OCD suffer from.

http://www.fastcodesign.com/1672984/compulsive-viewing-these-pics-put-ocd-on-full-display#10

Contacting Subjects Through Social Media

One of the best ways to contact people now a days is through social media and the internet. Although I have met two of my subjects through word of mouth, to expand upon my project, I need to find a few more subjects who are willing to participate. I have posted an advertisement on Gumtree, and copied to same text to selling pages in my local area, as well as my Instagram page, Facebook page and Twitter page. My tweet concerning this project has already been retweeted by a local Conservative councillor, and my old secondary school's art department.

"Hey everyone, I hope you can help me out!

I am a final year BA (Hons) Photography student at the University of Salford, and I am creating a photographic series based on collectors and hoarders. I am especially interested in meeting with people who have a large collection of items; no matter how weird or wonderful! I would be shooting your collection, house or person, whichever you feel comfortable with. The images have the potential to be shown at Salford Create in June 2015.

No travel will be involved, and I will travel to you whenever is convenient!

My number is 07*** *** ***, please contact me with any questions!

Laura Jane Parkinson"

"The Chromatic Diet" by Sophie Calle

Sophie Calle was asked by a filmmaker to create works of art inspired by a fictional character, and photographed them as meals. Each meal was colour-coordinated, and looked very appetising, even though the contents were questionable.

Her series has inspired me through the use of colour and layout when photographing still life and photographing a subject from above. On Sophie Calle's work, you can see she has lit the subject from two sides, especially evident on Saturday's menu whereby there are two shadows on the drink. This is something to bare in mind when photographing my series of work.

"Collections" by Jim Golden

Jim Golden is a photographer from Portland in America who documented collections that hoarders and collectors own using a crane and an amazing stylist. The results are amazing, and something that becomes art straight away rather than something we just look at and see someone who collects these items as being crazy.

"The photos depict everyday objects, but the variety and volume of items in each print force the viewer to consider the minute differences between the products and the relationships between them". (Wired, 2013)

www.wired.com/2013/09/this-photographer-is-a-high-class-hoarder
www.jimgoldenstudio.com

"American Consumerism" - Keith Yahrling

"American Consumerism depicts the spaces built by large companies to persuade shoppers to purchase vast amounts of products and goods. These stores sell a range of items, some are essential, like food and clothing, while others such as electronics and toys are not entirely necessary. Even though consumers purchase physical goods from these spaces, corporations have convinced us that we are purchasing much more than an object. Many times the individual goods are aligned with a particular lifestyle a consumer hopes to associate with. I view the spaces in my photographs as a reflection of the individuals that shop there even though people are not shown. The products and spaces I depict have the potential to reveal the desires of individuals in our society and illustrate the unbalanced relationship of a materialistic culture." (Keith Yahrling)

I have been inspired by Keith Yahrling's series which documents American Consumerism and how people react and buy items due to branding. His series documents various shopping malls in America, as well as shelves that contain the same item of varying designs. Although my research is underpinned by research into hoarding and collecting, certain images that Yahrling captured needed to be mentioned, as they have been helpful towards my own photographic work.

Although these two images represent the theme of consumerism and how people are drawn in by colours and branding, they heavily influence how I want to capture some elements of repetition in my work. People who collect and hoard have the same item over and over again, but in differing styles and designs. The theme of repetition will become a frequent factor within my work. 

"All I Own" by Sannah Kvist

I came across an inspiring series of work whilst I was researching, conducted by Sannah Kvist who is a portrait photographer. Her work has been a massive inspiration for my project, as her views on possessions and how people perceive items are very similar to my own. Her series, "All I Own", constructs sculptures of people next to all of their belongings, before they move out. Her photographs pose the question of are we represented by our personality or belongings. This is a question I have been asking myself for some time. We, as people, seem to collect items that mean something to us, or make us look better as a person. When I was a child, I used to always want the latest gadget or toy, so that I would be seen as more popular to my friends or family, and as I grew, this remained the same. 

I am mostly interested in the distinct contrast in the images that Sannah Kvist represents, especially between these two images of male subjects. The first subject seems to have a lot of clothing, gadgets and personal belongings that shape himself as a person, whilst the second subject owns simply books, a computer and a bed. Upon seeing these items, we judge the personality and lifestyle of a person, before meeting them. Stereotypically, I would judge the first subject as being a person who was interested in photography, who was part of a big social group, and who cared greatly about his appearance and looks. I judged this by the shoes being intricately laid out at the front of the shot, and the camera hung from a hook. I also naturally associated people who dress well, and with the trends of fashion, to be part of a big social group that goes out on the weekends. It is how I have been brought up to judge people, due to my background and experiences as a person.

I am going to take inspiration from these, and reference them within my own work when I photograph people who hoard items. Although not related in terms of the context of the image, they are aesthetically pleasing to the eye and draw the viewer in.

"The Comfort of Things": Daniel Miller

The change in idea from my last idea in my previous blog, to my current idea, changed due to the book titled "The Comfort of Things" on recommendation from Moira Lovell. It was one of the most interesting and thought provoking books I have read in a long time, and created the idea to focus my attention on hoarding and consumerism of the human nature.

I was particularly inspired by the stark contrast from Portrait 1 of George and Portrait 25 of Di. George's house was absent of any personal and emotional belongings, and was simply made up of necessities. Daniel writes, "This emptiness in someone's surroundings, that leaches away one's own sense of being, was only enhanced by our experience of George himself", reiterating the fact that George was not a person to keep personal attachments and belongings like most people do. Due to his history of never having a home, and living on the streets for lengths of time, I can understand why it would be difficult to keep ahold of personal possessions. The book touched on the fact he only owned one photograph in his house; a photograph of an island of the coast of Cornwall, which he has never visited, but keeps because it reminds him of his childhood.

In stark contrast, the chapter about Di looks at how she has created an identity for herself in her own home and as well as her appearance. "Her hair is bright, often also her lipstick and her clothes. There is usually something red, but other colours will also work for her. She might match gold mesh slip-on heeled sandals with orange nail varnish, or a chunky necklace with a multi coloured top. Brightness of this colour is ridiculously rare amongst British-born Londoners". The chapter touches on her failed marriage, and how she felt she needed to appropriate her home to herself, and make the house a project to prove to herself that she was still important. It interest me how people buy things in order to make themselves happy, and a collection of items or a pristine living room can make someone be perceived differently to someone who has an unkempt house. People seem to judge based on our belongings and tastes, and that is what I want to explore in the future of this project. 

History of Hoarding: Prior Knowledge and Extended Reading

Hoarding has always interested me as a condition from an early age, and probably stems from me being diagnosed with mild OCD last year. Hoarding and OCD have been linked in a number of books, as they both have similar characteristics deriving from perfectionism and the need to have a collection of things in order. Although hoarders are often stereotypically considered to messy human beings, which is the opposite of what OCD is, some hoarders simply have a large and out of control collection that they love and cherish.

I first was exposed to hoarding through reading the books by Arthur Conan Doyle titled "Sherlock Holmes". Within these books, he commented in detail about Sherlock's need to collate papers and store them within his home. However, throughout history there have been many occasions where hoarding has been mentioned, but as we progress through time, there seems to have been a slowly increasingly negative representation of these people.

The earliest reference I have read was a poem by Dante Aligheri titled Divine Comedy, which was written in the early 14th century. His poem guides us through how to descend through the 9 circles of Hell and come out in Paradise. In the fourth circle of Hell, we are greeted by two people crashing against each other with enormous boulders or rocks attached to their body. The poem reads:

"Why do you hoard?" and the other: "Why do you waste?"

"Hoarding and squandering wasted all their light

and brought them screaming to this brawl of the wraiths.

You need no words of mine to grasp their plight."

These two peoples lives where defined by acquiring possessions and either storing them away from the world within their homes, or destroying them. This is the first, and only severe negative representation of hoarding from this early on in history, and is represented as being a sin and something to be looked down on in the modern day; which I will discuss later.

Hoarding, as defined by the International OCD Foundation, is "not being able to let go of things. Throwing away, selling, giving away, or even recycling are very difficult for people who hoard."

http://hoarding.iocdf.org/dante_to_dsm-v.aspx

"Collyer Curiosa: A Brief History of Hoarding" by Scott Herring

After deciding that my series and practice will follow hoarding and extreme collecting, I decided to read an extract from the book by Scott Herring titled "Collyer Curiosa: A Brief History of Hoarding". I feel that with background knowledge on the subject, I will be more understanding of people who collected large amounts of items, and will be able to connect with them.

The book begins by taking about Homer Collyer, whom the book focusses upon, and how he was found dead in his Fifth Avenue flat in Harlem, after being "crushed to death by fallen stacks of bundled newspapers, one of the many booby traps that he had rigged to ward of priers." (Herring, page 1, 2011). Their collection spanned across over one hundred tonnes of material including several grand pianos and thousands newspapers and posters. The house was deemed unsafe and demolished soon afterwards.

Herring comments on the fact that the Collyer brothers were able to define a category of people that existed - the hoarder. Back in 1947, when Homer died, hoarding was considered to be something of great wealth and standard, whereas now, the times have shifted, and hoarding is seen to be unnecessary and "crazy". After watching the Channel 4 programme, "Hoarder Next Door", I have gained an understanding of how hoarding is considered now, and what sort of people end up filling their homes from floor to ceiling with rubbish, and how this compares with the early 20th century, where having a large collection of items was considered to be attached to someone of great importance.



http://muse.jhu.edu/login?auth=0&type=summary&url=/journals/criticism/v053/53.2.herring.html