A group of objects organized together. In art galleries and museums, collection can refer to permanent collections, acquisitions, or archives. The act of collecting itself can be a simple gathering of objects, or a rigorous process of searching, extracting, compiling, assessing, conserving, organizing, displaying, and maintaining. Though collection is best understood through the seemingly innocuous act or practice of collecting, it is by no means neutral: most major museum collections were born out of colonial plunder. Both public and private collections serve as arbiters of what is valued or attention-worthy, and equally, control what is concealed, withheld, obscured, suppressed, or contained (see The Day After, I stood before the source, The Figure in the Carpet, Always Already, We Must Invent).