Photo by Siemon Allen

“Grids: An Archive of Collective Memory,” a collaged collector card installation by artist Siemon Allen, opened at the SCAD Museum of Art on October 16.

The exhibit is on display until January 13, and features over 2,500 military collector card’s spanning seven decades. The installation features a historical look at military leaders, propaganda and technology advancement beginning with a World War I set from 1933.

This is the first time that the set will be shown together in its entirety. The grid pattern in which the works are presented resemble a matrix-like structure that recalls the kinetic flux of images and information that is constantly stimulating one’s brain.

Allen, who has been collecting the cards since 2001, was born in Durban, South Africa and now resides in Richmond, Va. The work highlights the perceptions of varied national identities that have been appropriated through the aesthetic lens of an artist as avid collector.

Allen began his collecting craze with stamps during his youth, successfully collecting one of every stamp ever produced in South Africa for more than a century.

Since 2007 he has been on a new mission to collect the records of every South African musician and the variations of each record produced all over the world. Allen has said that this is his “memorial to forgotten musicians.”

The show will run at the SCAD Museum of Art until January 13, and is free to all SCAD students and faculty, $5 for alumni or with a student ID, $8 for seniors and military, and $10 general admission.

Museum hours are 10 a.m – 5 p.m, Monday – Friday, with extended hours until 8 p.m on Thursday, and 12p.m – 5p.m on Saturday and Sunday.