The Taxonomy of the Portable Hawkers Museum is a work that was made specifically for a museum or gallery space. The work consists of catalogue photos of the objects in The Portable Hawkers Museum collection, which are exhibited with their corresponding acquisition numbers in vitrenes. The catalogue photographs are displayed as if they are ‘museum artefacts’, in place of the collection, since the actual collection cannot be displayed within the MuseumAfrica, or other museums. My intention was to expose classificatory systems within all museums, even my own, as being limited, and indicative of social power relations. Thus, the installation makes visible the absurd classification system (or taxonomy) of The Portable Hawkers museum, and by extension, other museums. On display in other vitrenes in the installation space, are gold (in colour) metal plates, which have the acquisition numbers printed on them. Here the object is removed, and the numbers themselves are elevated to the status of the museum artefact, presented as if they were precious objects, encased in glass and resting on velvet. This draws attention to what I perceive as the primary value of the object within the museum, and that is, that the museum ‘owns it’.
