Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts

Christi Lan Lin’s Children’s Textile Collection 5/21/2023 Kaohsiung, Taiwan

On Collecting

At what point does an object become more than just an object, but a thing that has a story, an emotion, even an energetic hum when you hold it in your hands?　How many things does it take to form a collection?  How does a collector curate, organize, and archive her collection? 

I was so honored to have been invited by the Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts to give a talk about my mother, the collector.  This talk has inspired me to ask her these questions in earnest.  I have long been familiar with my mother’s keen eye for the singularity of certain objects – the way she can tease out the thing-ness of these objects and place them in a context that allows their cultural weight to be felt.  But I had never asked her about the origins of her collecting, how she became a collector, and what her process looks like.  It was so special to be able to share what I’d learned with attendees to the talk at Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts.  

Getting up close

Attendees were able to look at pieces from the collection - some of them never-before-exhibited - up close and in detail.