For instance, we might realize there are only a few individuals capable of doing these things, and that their tastes might not extend to the full gamut of what is available either out there or locally produced – ditto for galleries, museums, and critics whose choice it is to exhibit and write about what they like.
Without a golden rule or playbook to follow, it boils down to a matter of choice and an issue of courage to make decisions, to probe deeply into how the system functions, to meld inventiveness with the sense of adventure in occasionally recognizing masterpieces in all their multiplicity, and contributing to the discourse in ways that elevate it to a higher form. Doing so would shift the focus off of who’s doing what, how, and with whom, and place it firmly back into the art that is made, where, I suspect, it ultimately should be.
Mostly, however, it’s the sense of value — in offering the public an understanding of how people work and what they actually think — which is deftly promised in Collecting Dust and Other Things, not because the speakers are identified as smarter, but because they believe the public is.
If pro-active and/or pro-art performances like this one can reach beyond its intended or cherry picked audience, it can deliver a wealth of knowledge and power into the hands of individuals who, by being affected by great art, in turn help to provide better access to it. It may also enable the public to respond and comment on a wider menu of artistic content and ideas without diluting or watering the process down, and model the choice to collect in ways that tell a variety of stories of each our own.
Perhaps, in the end, I too am a collector of actions, ideas, and quandaries, someone who is willing to donate my responsibility and faith in the process and power of art.
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