Chris Dorsett in practice

archive-only

In the end everything I have learnt about the intersection of collection-holding practices and contemporary art can be expressed by drawing in pencil on paper. That which is simply drawn presents a formidable challenge to the material entity we call a museum object. Nothing in everyday experience comes close to the discomforting isolation of collected things, nothing better represents non-compliant objecthood. And yet my drawings seem even more remote. In terms of effort there is so little to support their presence in the world, so much so that even my most laboured works seem to cling to the time in which they did not exist.

As I curate projects and write about museums I also draw. Not to create artworks for exhibitions but to fold up and store away my most immediate thoughts in a condition that I think of as 'archive only'. This is a variant of the practice-led approach to art school research that has, I like to claim, expanded scholarship in the fields of museum studies and material culture. However, collectors do treat my folded and boxed works as contemporary art, in good part because each drawing has an on-going audio-visual commentary posted online. But this contemporaneity has nothing to do with the current conventions of gallery viewing, there is no self-conscious moment of display, only an unfolding and enfolding - and an opportunity to look in between.

This last idea comes from studying the many beautiful Tantric images and diagrams that can be found archived in museum collections. I am told they were originally purchased on Indian streets as magic charms and then folded up to fit in a pocket in order to be carried away. If you want one of my drawings that is the only way in which you can make it yours.