RESEARCH PROJECT PROPOSAL: An Exploration of Leftover Matter
Fig. 1 View of collection.
The work is concerned with physical and psychological interpretation of place with particular focus just beneath the earth’s surface as an active and complex site. Recent development is led by a collection of objects and fragments discovered and excavated while gardening a plot of land. The accumulation of fragments are the springboard from which ideas and experimentation are generated. The aims of the work are to examine concepts of reuse and growth and to question preconceived ideas of what is considered unwanted and inanimate, “…garbage is leftover matter. It is what remains when the good, fruitful, valuable, nourishing and useful has been taken” (Scanlan, 2005:13). The work seeks to address these notions by exploring methods of rejuvenation and regeneration, digging beneath the surface in search of traces of fragmented memory. John Scanlan explains, “Garbage is the mucky handprint of a being that carries on regardless… it is the ghost that haunts presence” (2005: 14). The collection grows unintentionally and non-hierarchically. Usually fragments rather than objects they form many parts disconnected from their whole. “Garbage is concerned with ends (and thus beginnings); it is where one thing becomes another, where the once known or admitted […] unfold into a mess of incompatible parts” (Scanlan, 2005:16).
Fig. 2 The collection builds from just beneath the earth’s surface.
Awareness of historical colonial collections underpin the work with particular focus on “…the culture once living and open to the future becomes closed in the colonial status of stereotype” (Bhabha, 1994:111). These concerns relate to displays of cultural and archeological artefacts that you might expect to see in the Western Institutions. Rirkrit Tiravanija says, “they possess the object and think they actually understand and grasp these cultures through the objects” (2015). The work explores theories of Orientalism in reference to “a complex Orient suitable for study in the academy and for display in the museums…” (Said, 1978:7). To challenge the institutions methods of preservation and stereotype, Tiravanija sought to create fluidity and life in works such as ’untitled 1990 (pad thai)’ (1990) revealing an experience of objects.
Fig. 3 untitled 1990 (pad thai) (1990)
As the primary concern for the work is to explore methods of rejuvenation, theories of phantasmagoria make an impact. The Imperial institutions aimed to order and control the unknown, whereas phantasmagoria fed on fears the unfamiliar produced. New technologies were significant in creating illusions and the introduction of electricity generated new wonders to mystify audiences. Marina Warner’s ‘Phantasmagoria’ suggests technological developments “offer new ways to conceptualise and represent spirits and imaginary visions.” She is interested in “how the imagination summons up the spirits,” describing “Phantasmagoria as an archeology of spirits” (Lehtonen, 2009). The work makes connections between spirits, artefacts and psychoanalysis, proposing that the archeological process is mirrored in each discipline. Sigmund Freud was not only a psychologist but a renowned collector of artefacts and Susan Hiller pays homage to this in her work ‘At the Freud Museum’ (1994).
“The importance of her show was to demonstrate the close connection and the blurred boundaries between Freud’s antiquities as a material archaeological collection and his use of archaeology as a metaphor for psychoanalysis”
Freud would constantly rearrange his collection to personal taste rather than any systemic interest in the objects and Hiller was “interested in making visible suppressed or repressed meanings…” (Hiller, 2015:56)
Fig. 4 ‘The Introduction’ (2021)
Investigation of these ideas are tested through a range of research and technological methodologies, highlighted in these two works, ‘The Introduction’ (2021) and ‘If you could look into the seeds of time’ (2021). Both exhibited externally, they have played with notions of illusion and trickery, searching for methods of fluidity and life in forms of display. ‘The Introduction’ combines ‘2 meter ruler’ (2020) (animation completed for a curatorial workshop), a board (stage), a selection of fragments (players) and a projector (the mechanism of illusion). The projector becomes a critical component to the work facilitating and enacting the archeology of spirit and trace. Sarah Sze’s exhibition in Paris, ‘Night into Day’ was an influence, demonstrating the potential to create illusion with “flickering projections…scattered among complex assemblages of everyday objects” (Fondation Cartier, 2020).
Fig. 5 ‘If you could look into the seeds of time’ (2021)
Further exploration of technology in ‘Untitled #1 ( )’ (2021) introduces an electric fan and photography to the practice. Movement is facilitated by the force emitted by electricity and objects are subjected to a process of transformation through trickery of lighting, photography and editing. A trace of their former selves, the objects hint at a value and use once assumed, and flutter in a manner suggesting instinctual patterns of behaviour.
Although the intention behind each of the discussed works implies a carefully staged arrangement involving illusion and trickery, the objects are not altered nor hidden. It is critical for the work to be truthful to material. Sze explains that even though ‘The Timekeeper’ is a sculpture, “it is actually just these objects held together”. She does not disguise the everyday nature of the assemblage. (Sze & Latour 2020). Processes involved with producing illusions of life and movement are demonstrated but they do not force the objects into something else. They are fragments and come in all sorts of shapes, sizes and material. The common ground is the manner by which they were found, unearthed and collected.
The next stage in the work hopes to build on the explorative nature of the practice. A building on the site where the objects were excavated could be available and appropriate for the work to explore a site-specific outcome. New animation will document growth through observation of nasturtiums and grasses. In support of this, research aims to develop notions that “every plant has a story to tell” (ZKM / Videostudio, 2021). It looks at the relationship between object and plant and what constitutes ideas of life and meaning. There is a quote by Tom Robbins, “The inertia of objects is deceptive. The inanimate world appears static, dead to humans, only because of our neuromuscular chauvinism” (1990:62). This quote has played an illusive role in the work and is yet to be unpicked and put into context. The book may have potential to inform the work in a direction that expands on notions of animated objects and storytelling. Problems around labelling in colonial displays is another line of inquiry yet to be explored, taking into consideration materials and methodologies associated with it. The work aims to pursue relief printing and further utilise the workshops at UCA. Relief printing assimilates processes of excavation and trace and may lead to a book in the form a ‘Field Guide’. The principle aims are to explore narrative, focus on methods of animation, and to unfold the story that already exists in the objects.
Bibliography
Aristotle. ‘Book VIII’ In: Metaphysics. Translated by Ross, W.D. (1924) At: http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/metaphysics.8.viii.html (Accessed 8/06/2021)
Bhabha, H.K. (1994) ‘The Other Question: Stereotype, discrimination and the discourse of colonialism’ In: The Location of Culture. Abingdon: Routledge. pp.94-120
Birnbaum, D. and Tiravanija, R. (2015) ‘Meaning is Use’ In: Anyone 34. pp.163-170 At: http://www.jstor.org/stable/43630936 (Accessed 13/01/21)
Hiller, S. (2015) ‘Truth and Truth to Material//2003’ In: Lang-Berndt, P. Materiality. London: Whitechapel Gallery Ventures Ltd. pp.53-56
Fondation Cartier. (2020) ‘Biography’ In: Sarah Sze: Night into Day pp. 7 At: https://medias.fondationcartier.com/fondation/documents/press/DP_Sze_EN_digital_2021.pdf?mtime=20210527092849&focal=none (Accessed 11/06/2021)
Kiolbassa, B. et al. (2021) Terristrial University: Every Plant Has A Story (To Tell) ZKM. At: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSQTvGlZ_9Q (Accessed 9/03/2021)
Latour, B. (2019) The Verifiable Image of the World. [In French] Translated by Faugère, L. At:http://www.bruno-latour.fr (Accessed 15/01/2021)
Lehtonen, S. (2009) ‘Reviewed Work(s): Phantasmagoria: Spirit Visions, Metaphors, and Media into the Twenty-First Century by Marina Warner’ In: Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts. Vol 20, No.1 (75) pp. 137-139. At: https://www.jstor.org/stable/24352323 (Accessed 30/01/2021)
Morra, J. (2017) ‘Not-Archaeology: Freud and Hiller as Collectors’ In: Kokoli, A. (ed) Focus: From the Freud Museum 1991-6 by Susan Hiller, Tate Research Publication. At: https://www.tate.org.uk/research/publications/in-focus/from-the-freud-museum-susan-hiller/freud-hiller-as-collectors (Accessed 10/05/2021)
Robbins, T. (1990) Skinny Legs and All. pp. 62 New York City: Bantam Books
Said, W.E. (1978) ‘Introduction’ In: Orientalism. London: Penguin Books. pp.1-28
Scanlan, J. (2005) ‘Garbage Metaphorics’ In: On Garbage. London: Reaktion Books Ltd. pp.13-55.
Sze S. & Latour B. (2020) Sarah Sze et Bruno Latour : une balade-discussion dans l’exposition « De nuit en jour » de Sarah Sze At: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIeltYdt_ (Accessed 8/06/2021)
ZKM (2020). ‘Critical Zones: Observatories for Earthly Politics’ At: https://zkm.de/en/exhibition/2020/05/critical-zones (Accessed 2/01/2021)
ZKM / Videostudio (2021) Every plant has a story (to tell), In:Terrestrial University, Critical Zones. Observatories for Earthly Politics. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSQTvGlZ_9Q (Accessed 09/03.2021)
Images
Fig. 1 View of collection. [photograph]
Fig. 2 The collection builds from just beneath the earth’s surface. [photograph]
Fig. 3 Tirananija, R. (1990) untitled 1990 (pad thai). [Installation view]. At: https://d2trlit7krf5cb.cloudfront.net/files/4398/rirkrit-tiravanija-untitled-1990-pad-thai.2048x0.jpg (Accessed 13/05/2021)
Fig. 4 The Introduction (2021) [installation view]
Fig. 5 If you could look into the seeds of time (2021) [installation view]