The Thousands

I was introduced to the joy of flea markets as a kid and subsequently developed a healthy knack for collecting. My bedroom’s something of a miniature museum, full of rabbit-eared books, chipped vases and an army of crumbling statuettes. Some people think I’m weird, but Simryn Gill would get it. She, however, has put her penchant for collecting to a more considerable means.

Fresh from the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) in Sydney, Gathering explores Gill’s collective practise over the past five years. The works are constructed and presented in the form of clustered archives, featuring images, letters and books. She also documents her home of Sydney’s Marrickville (with help from bored grunge band Regular John) in hundreds of photographs that chronicle fragments of a month in the suburb; cracks in pavements, reflections in glass and rubbish covered streets. This ‘beautiful banal’ aesthetic extends to her political works in which sweet prints and paper boats provide underlying commentary on refugee policy and other pretty serious stuff. A collector of taste, and integrity, Gill’s Gathering is a master compilation.