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What are objects?: A simple question with a simple answer. A material thing, or so says the Oxford Dictionary. It can be placed before the eyes or presented to the senses - it has a spatial existence. Some objects are revered - worshipped – invested with value far beyond their material worth - fetishised. Museums and galleries are full of such objects- remnants of a former life. Are they dead or alive wrenched as they are from their cultural milieu? Objects in their material state are inanimate - mute. Yet, paradoxically they speak in many layered messages of history and cultural meaning. How can this be?
If we return to the dictionary we see that an object can also be a person - one of pitiable aspect – or one to whom an action or feeling is directed- which reminds us of the "gaze" within which the object is held – objectified. It is the non ego - the not self. Man, woman, objecthood – and then there is desire. The object can always be governed – made subject.
When the stress falls on the second syllable of the word objects, meaning again changes. Noun becomes verb, and the objections are palpable. They hang in the air waiting for the unwary to hear - to act.
What do you make of objects? I'd like to hear. Email me: s898367@student.uq.edu.au
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