Gillian Bencke is an artist who examines the stories created around objects, symbols, and language. In Us, Bencke uses the Anthropocene as both a backdrop and a subject to understand the drive to collect, preserve, and express identities through personal and cultural artefacts.
Just as museums archive relics of the past, humans adorn themselves with symbols that speak of who they are today.
Bencke’s work uses this language of display to raise questions about the values behind collections: what will these preserved artefacts say about society? Will they reflect care and respect or be evidence of neglect? The choices made today will become tomorrow’s collections — This is Us.
