From the IMA class Open Call taught by ITP Alumni, Blair Simmons. Each semester the students co design a theme and a title for an exhibition that they make new work for.
From their class:
Hoarding is often understood as excess or an overwhelming accumulation of objects and a reluctance to let go. What if we reframe it?
What if hoarding is not just about clutter, but about care, preservation, resistance, and identity?
This exhibition invites the artists to examine hoarding and its multifaceted nature. The physical, digital, emotional, and subconscious. We hoard objects, memories, time, people, data. Some collections are deliberate, some unconscious. Some offer comfort, others unease.
When does collecting transform into excess? Is hoarding an act of control, a response to scarcity, or a refusal to let go? Can it be a form of resistance, artistic expression, or even a way to understand the world?
A childhood teddy bear hoards nostalgia. A spreadsheet hoards information. A time capsule hoards a fantasy of the future.
Hoarding is shaped by context. Such as the spaces we inhabit, the systems we navigate, and the communities we are part of. In a digital era where data, thoughts, and identities are endlessly stored, are we all hoarders now?
Who has the ability to accumulate and who is forced to discard?
Consider hoarding beyond its material form to uncover its complexities, contradictions, and cultural meanings. Through these works, we invite new perspectives on what we choose to keep, and why.
