Sloane’s Agony
→ Sloane’s Agony
Found objects in display cases | started in 2011 | size: 30 x 40 x 9 cm
Fundstücke in Schaukästen | seit 2011 | 30 x 40 x 9 cm
The title of this series refers to the British doctor Sir Hans Sloane (1660 –1753), whose collection contained nearly 80,000 objects and items from across the world, around 50,000 books and manuscripts, and an extensive herbarium. This collection formed the basis for the foundation of the British Museum.
The display cases in the series Sloane’s Agony are based on this history. The work comprises individual cases, each containing a clear arrangement of individual items selected from my extensive personal collection of found objects. This collection mainly consists of small to medium-sized objects that were found lying on the floor, and which caught my attention for one of a number of reasons – be it their external appearance, their state of decay, their material composition or their no-longer-discernible purpose. The collection also contains many natural objects, such as pieces of wood, plant debris, animal carcasses, dead insects, bones and fungi.
The objects are grouped according to formal, content-based or narrative criteria, or based on reception aesthetics. The material is approached using techniques adopted from entomological practice (the individual objects are fixed in place using steel pins), which meant that holes have had to be drilled in some objects, especially those made of hard materials. These drill holes can be interpreted as a transition ritual or rite de passage. They simultaneously represent an act of labelling, of destruction and of standardisation.
