Sunday Art Dialogue: Why Do Humans Collect Things?

Buttons. Books. Paintings. Postcards. Shells. Watches. Ceramics. Photographs. Packaging. Objects from our travels – even things that other people might look at and wonder, “Why on earth would you keep that?” 

I have been thinking about this through a book I encountered during my time at Canterbury University. The Cultures of Collecting, edited by John Elsner and Roger Cardinal, my research professor, and published in 1994.

It explores collecting in all its extraordinary forms – from Freud and Sir John Soane to collectors of watches, Elvis memorabilia and commercial packaging.

And perhaps what fascinates me the most…

We don’t always collect things because they are valuable. We collect because they mean something to us.

I love the photograph of the buttons. Individually, they are ordinary objects. But gatherers together they become something else – a pattern, a memory, a little history of fashion and everyday life. Or random items hanging on the ceiling of a pub.

Robert Opie collected the packaging that most people would simply throw away.

Sir John Soana filled his extraordinary London house with paintings, sculpture, fragments and objects, creating his own world of discovery.

And Kurt Schwitters took discarded fragments of everyday life and transformed them into art.

Perhaps collecting is really about connection.

We collect things that remind us about people, places, experiences and moments. We collect things that intrigue us. Things that make us curious. Things that tell a story.

It doesn't have to make sense to anybody else.

If you love it - that is enough. So, I leave you with a question…

What do you collect?

The German term Wunderkammer means ‘Room of Wonder’. The purpose was not simply to possess things, but to create a world of discovery, surprise and conversation.

Perhaps we don’t collect things simply because they are valuable.

Perhaps we collect because they make us wonder. What about you?!