- Manifesto -

Having read various accounts of artistic experiments of purging all possessions from ones person; covering all items in newspaper/foil/cling film; vacuum packing every item of clothing or writing obsessive lists of each purchase made throughout their lives, I have generated quite an interest in strange and often obsessive behavioural activity:

This may be partly due to having a father who's obsessive nature of categorising and his need for cupboards to be 100% closed and drawers to be shut, has become more and more obvious to me in recent years. His insistence to categorise and arrange his possessions; his oil paints (he is a photo realistic painter) are all in perfect colour order with their ends rolled up to keep each tube looking full at all times; his extensive DVD collection is individually numbered and catagorised with each dvd alphabetical order, arranged in boxes with corresponding lists to make reference to whilst making selection and his extensive library of books and magazines placed in their "correct" place. I am unsure where this need to categorise everything has sprung from, whether it be the respect and love of his possessions, or to generate piece of mind when everything is in place, it should be, and always will be. Either way there is something that make people like him do this as opposed to a very large proportion of people who don't.
After working in various costume departments for television dramas, this strict categorising is also used to increase efficiency in the department, something which relates to one of my most memorable scenes in movie history: Cher's wardrobe computer programme in Clueless, where each item of her clothing in her enviable rotating wardrobe is on a hard drive. I once read an interview with Fred Butler, where her wardrobe was described to be colour categorised by the colour spectrum, this stuck in my mind and made me think the idea of categorising ones wardrobe is not completely strange. More recently I was told about David Meldrum who draws a picture of every item he eats or drinks and posts it on his website, a visual diary of his food, online for everyone to see. over the last 4 years I have found myself in various locations where only part of my wardrobe has been with me, compartmented between my parental home in london and wherever I have been living. Having moved home over christmas, my whole wardrobe has been reunited with itself, and of course, additions...
With all of the ideas and concepts discussed, such as Meldrum's fascinating practice, I believe it is possibly the lynch pin that influenced my idea in adopting this often unexplained behaviour. I picked up my camera and began to snap (not in the mental sense...... I hope....)
 
Welcome to my threads....

Back