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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.
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Artworks
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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

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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

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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

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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

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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  

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