What, If Anything, Is an Object?

at the Fogg Museum

through Summer

Tucked away in a corner gallery of the Fogg Art Museum there lies a fascinating and somewhat quirky collection of...well, things. Some of them can be called "art objects," and others might seem more appropriate in a toolbox. The exhibition intended to bring to the viewers' attention the various work that objects carry out, be it making things or simply being made.

Organized by Clive Dilnot, Associate Professor of Visual and Environmental Studies, the show's title says it all: "What' If Anything, Is an Object?" Exploring the work objects, however, is a risky business, and the show can at times seem a bit preachy and somewhat heavy-handed. Despite the daunting breadth of its content and purpose it holds together remarkably well and is ultimately quite effective.

The gallery has been organized along two axes, crossing the room diagonally. At the end of each, in the corners, are the "four key moments in the workings of objects:" representation, cognition, decoration, and function. The axes themselves radiate from the center as "human form" (towards representation), "mediator's (towards cognition), "vessels" (towards decoration), and "tools" (towards function). These are the basic pillars, it seems of the condition of being an object, and in between the four major "moments" there lies "fetishism, aura, measurement, and embellishment." This might seem like a lot to swallow on a leisurely visit to the Fogg to check out some paintings, and the preponderence of jargon in a visual exhibit is certainly a turn-off, but Dilnot's choice to include these guides (the "four moments" are writ large on the walls of the gallery) is actually very helpful. They provide a very specific context for the objects, and without them it might be more difficult to prove, as it seems is the intention of the show, that the objects don't really fit, that objects are stubborn in their multivalency.

In a world in which the role of objects defines more than we might care to admit, the various categories in which we fit objects can at times seem impregnable fortresses. "What, If Anything, In an Object?" seems to take these categories and expose the considerable fluidity inherent in each. And so the objects in the show force themselves out of their boxes and shed the constraints of their condition. Compelled to re-examine the relationship between object and between ourselves and the object world, we reach new conclusions about the way in which objects exist and about what it is to be an object.

The focal point of the exhibition is Constantin Brancusi's Marble Hand of Mademoiselle Pogany, a beautifully stylized and impossibly elegant sculpture which, which emphatically being "hand", proclaims with equal volume "form," "body," "tool," and so on. Its placement at the origin of the two axes of the show is entirely appropriate, because it is the most obviously ambiguous work in the room. This is not to say that the other objects in the show are easily pigeon-holed. Indeed, once put behind glass under the even light of an exhibition, even the tools used for installing the show take on a life that actively pushes the objects away from their label. This is a show which intentionally debunks its own rules. By establishing the basic parameters for the work of objects, it become inescapably obvious how blurred the lines between them are such that Henry Beck's London Underground diagram hang on equal footing with a classical statue and a walrus' tuck.

The exhibition is certainly a fascinating theoretical exploration, but it is also a very beautiful visual experience. The collection of things that have been assembled for this show is quite extraordinary, and it is unlikely that such depth in such a limited collection (there are sixty-five pieces in the show) is to be found anywhere else. Drawing on private collections as well as the hoarded goodies of various Harvard museums, Dilnot has compiled a truly weird and very quirky medley. Moreover, each piece in itself is quite wonderful, from carved lindenwood sculptures to Arman's Venus, a polyester torso stuffed with money, the individual objects comprise a richly textured feast for the eyes, and should not be missed. The show runs well into the summer, so there's plenty of time to take advantage of this entertaining, informative, and quite beautiful exhibition.