Still trying to compete with Mr. Cool in the next cubicle and his army of mint-condition, vintage Star Wars action figures? Marilynn Gelfman Karp has four words of advice: Put down the lightsaber. If you weren’t born a collector, even eBay can’t save you.
As an art professor at NYU and a sculptor who uses found objects, Karp has collecting in her blood. And her new book, In Flagrante Collecto, can help anyone survive, ahem, “collectile dysfunction.” Part cultural anthropology, part memoir, this encyclopedia of obsession does for collecting what Darwin did for natural selection. Visually, it’s The Origin of Species by way of Andy Warhol. (The pop icon was also a world-class pack rat; he couldn’t, wouldn’t, let anything go – a problem, Karp explains, with “deaccessioning.”)
In Flagrante celebrates all kinds of collectibles, from girlie pinups to windup robots. But Karp is particularly keen on “debased objects” that most folks would find worthless: Bottle caps. Lost-pet posters. Sanitized for your protection toilet-seat bands. Between the lines, Karp has compiled a lasting chronicle of obsolescence.
– W. O. Goggins
credit Naomi Harris
Author Marilynn Gelfman Karp’s collection of collections includes thousands of objects, from character wallers to toilet-seat bands.
Character wallets
Karp’s bottle caps
Toilet-seat wraps
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Acquisitions Dept.
