Museum of Personal Failure exhibition turns defeat into triumph in Vancouver

A new exhibition at Vancouver’s dubiously iconic Kingsgate Mall features lost hopes, shattered dreams and crushed ambitions — and a whisper of hope.

The Museum of Personal Failure, which runs Jan. 24 to Feb. 3, explores the experiences of failure through artifacts submitted by the public, ranging from a wedding dress of a failed marriage, to non-working knives, to a can of spilled paint.

Curated by Burnaby resident Eyvan Collins, the idea for the Museum of Personal Failure originated when a relationship ended.

“I felt like a failure. It was a heartbreak,” Collins said.

“I just needed to do something with it — and this is what I did.”

Collins made posters saying “Failures Wanted” and plastered them on garbage cans, curbs and electrical boxes.

Soon he had emails offering to display all sorts of artifacts of failures.

Failure is an essential part of life, Collins said.

“It’s part of making an attempt. Sometimes it goes the way you want it to, sometimes it doesn’t,” he said.

A “Wall of Reject” includes firing notices and rejection letters.

Collins’ mother, Jennifer Campbell, submitted her wedding dress.

“I wanted to sort of tell a story about a failing that occurred in my marriage, and how we were able to move on,” she said.

“I’ve called it Threads of Innocence, because it’s about the innocence of false fairy tales or things that you think are going to happen when you’re young … and it doesn’t happen.”

She noted the significance of how she displayed the dress in a moving box: it represents how people can move on from difficult moments.