Inspired by Descartes’s famous dictum, “I think, therefore I am”, Why I Collect draws from the personal collection of the founder of Blank Canvas. It presents art works by six contemporary artists, with each work a representation of a major art form – film, painting, performance, photography, sculpture, sound. For this particular collector, collecting is a pathway to thinking. In this exhibition, he shows us what he collects, which gives us a glimpse of what and how he thinks.  

Fittingly, the works shown in Why I Collect challenge the conventions of what these art forms are or should be. A painting that literally demands to be stepped on; a sculpture that is activated by the audience’s touch; a film which does not play; photographs which draw their power not only from the image itself but also from the manner in which they can be viewed; literal year-long performances captured in a single instance; a sound work which is as visual as it is auditory, as well as interactive.  

These works upend, and extend, our conceptions of the different media of art. But beyond their ostensible manifestations and their questioning of form, these works also offer for contemplation other layers of issues about art, such as the preciousness (or not) of art works, the democratization of art, and the relationship between the art work and the audience. These works, as interrogations of form and issues, were collected in pursuit of understanding. By sharing these works with the public, the exhibition invites each visitor to Blank Canvas to also embark on their own journey of questioning and understanding.