The Collector's Set : The Fork's Tale, as narrated by itself

Abstract

The Collector's Set (2014) is the culmination of a 5 year AHRC Research Fellowship with the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge (2009-2014). It was funded by Arts Council England, designed by Marit Muenzberg, released chapter by chapter by LemonMelon and culminating in The Collector's Set. It contains a series of 12 chapters that together comprise a novel written from the point of view of a nineteenth century Fijian ‘cannibal fork’ in the collection of the University of Cambridge, and recording an object's attempt at understanding the collector who transported him from Fiji only to be left in a darkened storeroom with others of his ilk, as well as encounters with other collectors since. The product of an inter-disciplinary methodology, The Collector's Set uses art practice to interrogate assumptions in anthropology and in ethnographic collections management.