COMMEMORATION

In a sense, all objects in an exhibited collection are objects of historical interest. Temporarily or permanently taken out of circulation in order to represent their own function, they simultaneously lose their utilitarian status while on display. Time and history swallow everything, and commemoration thus becomes a kind of metacategory, embracing all others.

Within the university, history is celebrated at many different levels, official and highly unofficial, from the institutional to the individual level. Commemoration, the ritual acknowledgement of history, tends to be embodied in two types of objects in particular: busts and trophies. Bust portraits appear in the entrances to buildings, in special rooms, and numerous collections, functioning like family gods or titular deities. Trophies are equally ubiquitous and even more varied; many departments seriously or jokingly honor the accomplishments of their students, translating their activities into objects.

{Essays} {Gallery} {Microcosms}