Collection Project

Growing up, I remember having somewhat of a fascination with large quantities of things.

Something about the sheer number of stars in the sky, or pebbles on the beach, or fans at

a baseball game made my mind bend. I was drawn to the unfathomable intangibility of

quantities too large to wrap my brain around. In hindsight, I believe that this fascination is

what motivated my numerous collections as a child. Bordering on obsession, these collections

were not prompted by any affection or sentimentality for the objects that I was collecting, but

rather by the concept of having mass quantities to call my own. Simultaneously fueling my

desire to collect was an unhealthy dose of competitiveness. So when I saw that a girl in my

class had collected a small handful of colored pencil tips, I filled an entire mason jar with them.

I collected animal erasers, beanie babies, barbies, and even kept the wax from babybel cheeses

and formed them into a giant wax ball. To reiterate, I felt no particular affinity towards erasers or

stuffed animals or cheese wax, but rather towards the act of collecting. 

I have since outgrown that strange proclivity, but the satisfaction of acquiring a collection remains.
In my adult years, I have found more subtle outlets for my tendencies: my extensive bookshelf, my
cluster of candles, my table of perfume bottles. None of these collections seem over the top or out
of place in my maximalist bedroom, but they nonetheless are homages to my upbringing as a collector.
When this collection assignment was introduced, I was bombarded with a deluge of ideas, of collections
I could expand upon or entirely new ones I could begin. 

On the coffee table in my bedroom, I had three Playboy magazines from the 1970s gifted to me by a
family friend from her own collection of archival magazines. I personally find the brand and the company’s
history incredibly fascinating. I’ve found that flipping through the magazines provides an insightful look at
the progression of female sexuality through the male gaze. Observing the constantly evolving beauty
standards reminds me of how subjective attractiveness is, and how it is so often dictated less by personal
desires and more by societal norms of a given time. I decided to expand upon my collection of vintage
Playboys in order to obtain a more comprehensive look at the evolution of what was subjectively considered
sexually desirable. 

The magazines that I chose to include span the 60s, 70s, and 80s. I decided to focus on these decades
in order to exhibit how rapidly aesthetic standards and sexual expression evolves within a relatively
short period of time. I acquired the magazines from a variety of sources, including vintage thrift stores,
etsy, and borrowing from friends. For my display, I want to emphasize two diametrically opposed movements
of the mid-20th century: the sexual revolution and conservative family values. I decided to play against the
taboo nature of the magazines by displaying them in an environment reminiscent of a wholesome 1950s family
picnic.