In 1936 JG Graves described his art works as “…a well balanced and representative collection of English, Dutch and French art which has been systematically collected with due regard to merit.”

Graves explicitly celebrates his collecting criteria: merit and balance, being representative and being systematic. Kim Merrington challenges this definition by combining original art works and mass-produced items. She sees the exhibition as the creation of her own ‘collection’, and through her arrangement of the works she takes ownership of them.

One of the paintings that caught Kim’s attention early in this project was ‘At the Bazaar’, by the Pre- Raphaelite artist James Collinson (1825-1881). This picture shows a fashionably dressed young woman at a Church Bazaar, and the table behind her shows a variety of objects. The woman herself carries an empty purse, which suggests that her family are unable to provide sufficient dowry for her marriage. An alternative title for this work, ‘For Sale’, links the concept of the marriage market to prostitution. In Kim’s work these ideas about goods and worth become related to the perceived cultural and monetary value placed on the painting itself as an artwork.

In this exhibition, Kim takes Sheffield’s art collection and makes it her own. She juxtaposes the accumulation of objects in everyday life with the role of the art collector, and through this the whole idea of collecting is transformed.”