"Federalism, Georgian, Gothic Revivalism, Greek Revivalism, and Victorian architecture" T.ARCHIVIST Artist Take
Artist Take / 11 October 2026 / By: Sydney Sweeney
T.Archivist is an instagram page that epitomises what we here in HOLLYWOOD call "The heydey of the instagram archival impulse".
Following on from our piece with BATHMAT3000, Hollywood attempts to understand the affect of estoeric knowledge and book collecting upon the now-all-powerful-algorithimically-dictated explore page.
T.archivist also runs PINOTEKA shop - where they sell actual rare books, some of which form the content for the page itself.
As seen in Artforum's lifting of articles from its archive to post to its instagram, the fetishisation of the past is very **en vogue: an archive page will post an image of Klee's "angel of history" next to a batch of post-war japanese erotic illustration.
If you're cult event/erotic book/ political assasination/far left leaning exhibition isnt chronicled in a series of slides, did it even occur?
In 2050 your children will run an archive page that places images of Luigi Mangione leaving court alongside photographs of Mazzy Joya by Richard Kern.
The past lives on in the present..yadayadayada
BEST POSTS INCLUDE:
“Lost in Manboo: Living In A Japanese Internet Cafe,” 2014.
Favourite non-sentient object and sentient object
Oysters as nonsentient/ petroleum as sentient
Is the archive the house of ghosts?
The whole of the internet is a house of ghosts. When you die on the internet, you die on repeat for eternity everytime you death is shared again.
Is life what you expected when you were a kid?
I didn’t really have many expectations for the future as a child, but I would say I never would have came up with what I do now, or the people I have met, or the places I have been.
What do you think about storing stuff on the cloud?
I don’t have an issue with storing things on the cloud, I will say it isn’t very safe or reliable but for stuff like 100s of gigabytes of high res scans, it can be pretty useful.
What is ur relationship to your schizophrenic device?
Pacifier/salt lick.
Favourite Instagram account
Czwarve/ mythrobbingristle/ archivistmag / bathmat3000
Do you think you are cool?
I think I am affable.
Conspiracy theory/ cultural event you would want dramatised.
https://gideonkeys.wikidot.com/
While this doesn’t exactly fit the confines of conspiracy theory, The Gideon Keys is probably my favorite thought experiment/ work of internet fiction. What if every major city in the world had a bunch of magical phenomena that you could interact with or witness? What if a certain record under a shelf at an antique store would give you a live feed of someone's thoughts when you play it. As long as you put it back when you are done, nothing bad will happen to you. Or what if every blood transfusion done in your county comes from the same donor? The donor being an endlessly bleeding headless corpse that has been held by the district hospital in a secret room since the 1870s. Much of this phenomenon is localized and presents itself through regional institutions, unique to your area.
Would you like to buy this?
https://www.researchpubs.com/shop/p/situationist-music-cassette
No, as it is sold out, but it looks worth listening to.
Is there anything that separates erotica and pornography?
Erotica is made with artistic intent in mind, whereas pornography can only have art as an afterthought. Porn must be explicit; erotica is suggestive. Pornography is seldom ‘tasteful,’ but erotica relies on taste, and is typically presented as a cultural work, fashion, literature, or, again, art itself.
Favourite books on your erotica section of your website?
Koji Wakamatsu- Pink Film Collection: My Eros Feast, 1970. A collection of stills by the highly acclaimed Japanese director.
Richard Cerf, S/T, 1990. Amazing and unique artistic direction.
Yoshifumi Hayashi - La Jeune Mariee D'un Materialiste Enceinte De Cerveaux, 1994. Morbid and incredible drawings.
Favourite erotica book in general
Romain Slocombe, City Of the Broken Dolls, 1997. All of Slocombe’s books focus on paintings or photos of women wearing casts. Eyepatches, bandages, and crutches, usually bound to hospital beds or under bright neon lights as they would walk through the city's dark underbelly. Healing and trauma as fetishism.
An artwork you would own? Do you have a dream group show you would curate? (artistic dream blunt rotation)
When it comes to works that I would exhibit in my house, I strongly prefer American folk art. Bill Traylor, Howard Finster, Eddie Arning, any sort of objects adorned in the Tole painting style (of which my great-grandmother was internationally famous for making), tramp art carvings, antique 1920s quilts and 1800s primitive chairs and frames. Things that, outside the artists who I name-dropped, with some dedication and persistence, I can curate myself through estate sales and abandoned houses.
How do we protect physical media?
Make copies.
How does your archive influence other people? How would you like it to?
I have had a lot of people tell me I had introduced them to something that changed their worldview, or influenced them to make their own art or curate their own collection. That’s what I want to do.
Favourite architectural style: Post-modernism, Gothic revivalism or Playboy mansion.
I enjoy a lot of Federalism, Georgian, Gothic Revivalism, Greek Revivalism, and Victorian architecture that can be seen in the coastal southeast.