Rubbish Conversation with Lars Tharp at the Hepworth, Wakefield, 19/01/14
Lars Tharp: You’ve brought in an installation. This is what I’d call an installation.
Alice Bradshaw: This is the Cuba Collection and this one is from Essen in Germany.
LT: How did these come about?
AB This one [The Cuba Collection] was collected by myself whilst I was over there on holiday and this one [The Essen Collection was sent over by a musician friend as part of a Ruhr Valley-Calder Valley exchange.
LT: OK. This is the first time I’ve ever seen a collection like this. This is basically someone’s rubbish bin, isn’t it?
AB: Yes, this one [The Essen Collection] is, but this one [The Cuba Collection] is from all over parts of Cuba; from Havana and the Cayo Coco Islands.
LT: This is the sort of thing that would have made it into the Opie Collection. He specialises in packaging and the history of packaging. His Museum used to be in Gloucester but now it’s in London in storage because it’s so massive.
So what you’ve brought is a time capsule. Is it just one person’s rubbish?
AB: No it’s multiple people’s; found on the beach and on the street. But this [The Essen Collection] is one person’s rubbish and these are just two collections from the entire Museum of Contemporary Rubbish.
LT: What a great name! The Museum of Contemporary Rubbish. Where does that hang out?
AB: It exists online. Most of the Collections are recycled and there’s only a couple of Collections that still exist in physical form. I document every single item and the blog features all the items and Collections.
LT: Now, what do you regard yourself as an anthropologist or as an artist?
AB: As an artist, but there’s certainly an anthropological inclination to my work.
LT: I’ve got a couple of books back there on collecting and the theory of collecting. I was reading a particular book yesterday; basically a very Marxian approach to why we collect things and why we have to own things – something I’ve given a lot of thought to over the years – and I was struck by how much tosh there was in it! It’s all very convincing with lots of long words and pyschobabble but in the end these are all assertions. This is not scientific. You cannot say that because some collects this that they are anally retentive. I’m always suspicious that the longer the sentence and the more complicated the words the less the meaning there is. There I was eating my supper in the hotel writing “RUBBISH!” Ha!
I actually think this quite funny. Is this on exhibition somewhere?
AB: I do exhibit the Museum yes; last year in Chicago and a solo show coming up in Blackpool. I show them as the images. The only time I’ve shown the actual rubbish was my own Hoard which was every item of rubbish from my art practice that I collected during 2012.
LT: What was the name of the artist that took all of his own stuff and he shredded everything?
AB: Michael Landy. Break Down (2001).
LT: Yes. Which is the same sort of area isn’t it?
AB: Yes, definitely. I’m studying other artists’ use of rubbish and he’s one of the more well known artists through media prominence. It was a big statement to make. He destroyed absolutely everything he owned including other artists’ works he had collected.
LT: It’s fascinated stuff. Ordinary people reading the paper will say “this is not good!” and actually there is some serious stuff in there. I did archaeology so I’ve been specialising in rubbish! But of course it acquires a different status once it’s old there is that sort of nostalgia what I call nostalgia effect.
AB: And rarity too.
LT: Yes. We could talk about that for ages but sadly we don’t have time today. I’ll take a photo of this. I might use this because at the end of the day I’m going to blast some images at 4-5 o’clock and I might just show one or two things that came in and this has got to be in.
Continued..
