Thing Theory
May 6th 2023 – June 10th 2023
Nancy Allen, Areena Ang, Frances Drayson, Lina Viste Grønli, Melika Ngombe Kolongo, Jos Nyreen, Josiane M.H. Pozi
Taking its title from Bill Brown’s theory that follows Heidegger in delineating a difference between objects and things, the exhibition looks at seven distinctive practices that all consider the ontological status of things.
Brown argues that when an object stops working for us it becomes a thing – it is released from its original function and begins an additional life. We then engage with its thingness. Where objects create subjects, things interfere with that subject-object relation.
Various conceptual frameworks, such as animism, object oriented ontology, actor-network theory, and other technological and spiritual turns, have led to an increasingly popular interest in the interconnectedness of all things, a rejection of anthropocentrism, and the acknowledgment of a more expansive notion of consciousness in non-human and inanimate entities.
The works in this show speak to the mutability of objects and interrogate both the power and fetishisation of things as they pass through different semantic contexts.
Lina Viste Grønli
On Finance and Economics
2016
Books, wine glass, red wine
Frances Drayson
Model for hidden enemies
2022
Unglazed stoneware ceramic
15 x 5 x 5cm
Frances Drayson
Model for visible aspects of character
2022
Unglazed stoneware ceramic
15 x 5 x 6cm
Frances Drayson
Model for inheritance
2022
Unglazed stoneware ceramic
23 x 5 x 7cm
Nancy Allen
Partners
2023
Dyed feathers
18 x 10 x 10cm
Areena Ang & Josiane M.H. Pozi
Untitled
2023
Deflated vinyl balloon in painted wooden frame
58cm x 80cm
Areena Ang
Penalty
2023
Oil on canvas
30cm x 60cm
Areena Ang
XIV
2023
Oil on canvas
30cm x 60cm
Jos Nyreen
Open up All That is Still Inside
2023
Xylitol chewing gum, wood, toothpicks, ink, iron gall ink, acrylics
9 x 9 x 5cm
Melika Ngombe Kolongo
Cheri Maji
2023
Crinoline, sequin, rafia, silk, plant colouring, paint
They hide me in the secret place, simbi
2023
Cement, rafia, found objects, spray paint, cowry, sequin
nzi nza nzo
2023
30 secs infinity loop cassette tape