'By using everyday found objects in artworks how do artists re-examine or position new works within the framing of Ecological Thought?' by Carmen Van Huisstede
Table of contents
Introduction
Ecological Thought
Politics and Ecology
Humour and Storytelling
Hauntological Connections
Ecological Awareness
The Object Itself
Conclusion
Appendix
i. Bibliography
ii. Images
Introduction
This thesis sets out to explore how re-using materials, and specifically everyday found objects, artists can deliver an ecological response viewed through the lens of the principles of Ecological Thought, where all forms of life are interconnected, and objects and not just humans, have agency of their own. It examines this idea by analysing the works of past artists Marcel Duchamp (1887 – 1968), Joseph Beuys (1921 – 1986) and David Weiss (1946 - 2012), and contemporary artists Peter Fischli (1952- ), Ibrahim Mahala (1987- ), Michael Landy (1963- ), Sarah Sze (1969- ), Yu Li (1985- ) and Tadashi Kawamata (1953- ). These artists all used everyday found objects in their work, but with radically different interpretations and ecological overtones.
It sets out to look at the artists’ works from different viewpoints, political, comical, fictional, and hauntological. It also then examines the materiality of the found objects themselves to underline the ecological thread.
In Ecological Thought, it outlines the definition of the concept of Ecological Thought. It will analyse the ecological link between selected artist’s works starting with when Marcel Duchamp (1887 - 1968) created the first readymade, built out of everyday found objects. It asks the leading question as to whether there is an ecological thread throughout their works, intended or unintended.
In Politics and Ecology, it investigates how found objects are used with political connotations. Firstly, it examines Ghanaian artist Ibrahim Mahama (1987- ), who in his monumental works, explores themes of colonialism, globalisation, and trade by using primarily found objects. Secondly, it looks at Michael Landy’s (1963- ) work Break Down from 2001, where after putting together an inventory of everything he owned, he destroyed all his belongings.
In Humour and Storytelling, it examines how using humour and fictional narrative as an overlay to apparently mundane found objects challenges the perception of these objects and delivers on the premises of Ecological Thought by creating a more human connection to them and so increases their inherent value. It examines this through how artists Peter Fischli (1952 - ) and David Weiss (1946 – 2012) used everyday household objects in an absurd and comical context and how Marcel Duchamp and Jean Tinguely (1925 – 1991) used found objects in their work.
In Hauntological Connections, it will look at the interesting thought of how inanimate objects can carry a ghost of their past function and cultural meaning forward into the present and how this can have an effect on our relationship with found objects and increase their ecological value.
In Ecological Awareness it will look at how artists have communicated the ecological message though their art using found objects, both directly and indirectly. It looks at artists such as Sarah Sze who purposefully reassigns the original use of the object to change its intrinsic meaning and in doing so creates a revaluation of that object in what she calls an open-ended inquiry.
In the final chapter, The Object Itself, it examines the materiality of the object, the shape texture and function of the object. How this can be used in an aesthetic role as well as how it carries hauntological meaning that can be reinforced in the art or even used to challenge our relationship with that object. It will look at one object in particular, the Coca-Cola bottle and how that it’s has been incorporated in art works by artists with multiple cultural influences.
Ecological Thought
Timothy Morton, in his books The Ecological Thought, Hyperobjects, All Art is Ecological, argues that all forms of life are interconnected, and this connectivity penetrates all dimensions of life. He states in his books that all things have agency to some degree – not just humans.
Moreover, in The Ecological Thought, Timothy Morton argues that:
Ecology isn’t just about global warming, recycling, and solar power – and, also not just to do with everyday relationships between humans and non-humans. It has to do with love, loss, despair, and compassion. It has to do with depression and psychosis. It has to do with capitalism and with what might exist after capitalism. It has to do with amazement, open-mindedness, and wonder. It has to do with doubt, confusion, and skepticism. It has to do with concept of space and time. It has to do with the light, beauty, ugliness, disgust, irony, and pain. It has to do with consciousness and awareness. It has to do with ideology and critique. it has to do with reading and writing. It has to do with race, class, and gender. It has to do with sexuality. It has to do with ideas of self and the weird paradoxes of subjectivity. It has to do with society. It has to do with coexistence. Like a shadow of an idea not yet fully thought. (Morton, 2010, p.2)
Morton argues that objects become more substantial and visible during ecological crisis but also serve to alert us to dilemmas that define our age. Similarly, the use of found objects in art can do the same thing. They ask the question that Morton does of the interconnectedness of things, the mesh, exploring the relationship between the inanimate and the human.
Graham Harman, a leading professor of philosophy and a key figure in the contemporary speculative realism movement in philosophy, in his book, Object-Oriented Ontology: A New Theory of Everything (2018), opposes the idea that humans are special: ‘the world, he states, is clearly not the world as manifest to humans’. He argues that humans are not a privileged species as they believe to be. The Object-Orientated Ontology theory is the theory that all non-human objects, either real, fictional, natural, or artificial are all at once autonomous.
This complex interplay between non-human objects can change the relationship between objects used in artworks and the observer. These found objects in art works can prompt philosophical reflections in the viewer of the artwork with a large range of emotions. Moreover, it has been proven that using found objects in making can raise self-expression and self-esteem, additionally can boosts emotional and mental wellbeing as they create symbolic links to past experiences and relationships. (Brooker, 2010)
This could be a reason why so many artists, consciously or not, use found objects in their art to stimulate these past connections and provoke positive or negative emotions in relation to ecological thought.
In 1913, Marcel Duchamp (1887 – 1968), mounted the front wheel of a bicycle on a kitchen stool creating the first readymade object out of everyday objects. This original trend created a ‘way out of art’, making an important contribution to the history of modern sculpture by ‘opening up a new dimension in aesthetic consciousness’. (Ruhrberg, 2016)
In addition, the way that Duchamp arranged and used his objects gave them humorous overtones as well as relying on chance. This added a new dimension to the works where the appeal of these found objects lies in their apparently disconnected relationship to each other and their original design and functional intent. The attraction to these artworks also relies on the humorous use of these objects as they contradict their intended original use and convey a new meaning to the viewer. Its most likely that Duchamp did not have an ecological intent when creating these readymades. However, in our modern context the ecological narrative of using these found objects used in this way in art gives them agency and connectedness and achieves Morton’s description of objects becoming ‘more substantial and visible during ecological crisis’. (Morton, 2010)
Robert Rauschenberg (1925 – 2008) picked up on this when in 1949 he arrived in New York and discovered limitless found objects on the streets of Manhattan that later made it into his paintings and sculptures. He thought of this as connecting the gap between life and art, and as with Duchamp made a possibly unintended comment on the environment and ecological thought in the process of using these found objects.
The practise of using the object in art continued in 1958, when Arman (1928 – 2005) arranged radio tubes, nails, and splinters of glass over canvases, as a fitting ‘gesture to mark art's quest to embrace reality’. Moreover, Arman together with Jean Tinguely (1925 – 1991) and Daniel Spoerri (1930- ) focused on experimenting with the concept of assimilation of city, factory, machine, mass media and consumerism. (Ruhrberg, 2000, p.518-519)
Fig 1. Arman, Accumulation of Cans, 1961
In Fig. 1, Accumulations of Cans, 1961, was created by Arman from Poubelles-trashcans containing the discarded waste of friends, children, bourgeois homes or market hall. In addition to these works created with a positive connotation, he also destroyed the objects he found, e.g., burning musical instruments, smashing household good, and exploding a sports car, that later will be reassembled as relics of destruction, further underlining the mass production and in same time the loss of the ability of expression. (Ruhrberg, 2000, p.518-519)
There is more to this than a cursory evasion of composition; it is the condensation of consumption into the signature of our everyday life, a patinaed still-life or portrait of our civilisation. A bridge built from the readymade to sociology and psychology, a collection of cogwheels as the commando headquarters of a mechanical, anonymous power. (Ruhrberg, 2000, p.518-519)
Politics and Ecology
Throughout time artists have researched, analysed, and discussed the relationship between art and politics. Also, the recent growth of art activism has spurred debates over whether art has the power to function as a method and medium for political protest and social activism. By combining art and social action, art activism aims to improve existing situations rather than just criticise them.
Morton (2010) said in his book The Ecological Thought that ‘Artforms have something to tell us about the environment because they can make us question reality’.
Fig 2. Ibrahim Mahama, Out of Bounds, 2014-2015
Ghanaian artist, Ibrahim Mahama (1987- ) explores themes of colonialism, globalisation, and trade in his work by working primarily with found objects. For one of his most famous installations (Out of Bounds Installation, 2014-2015, developed for the 2015 Venice Biennale it functioned as a corridor around the side of the Arsenale), Fig 2, he used jute sacks, which stand as metaphors for national histories of growth and decline entrenched within the structures of capitalism. He initiated these works as an exploration of concepts of crisis and failure he observed in his country. The jute sacks in his works are imbibed with meaning, ‘You find different points of aesthetics within the surface of the sacks’ fabric’. He also said, ‘I am interested in how crisis and failure are absorbed into this material with a strong reference to global transaction and how capitalist structures work.’ (White Cube, 2021)
Mahama currently turned his attention to the growing concern with electronic waste and he created a large-scale installation for the Waste Age: What can design do? at the Design Museum, referencing the Agbogbloshie e-waste dumping site in Accra, Ghana. Agbogbloshie is a former wetland that became the largest e-waste dump in the world. Local workers recycle the metals found inside the dumped electronics using dangerous processes that often incur injury and illnesses. The processes of reusing the materials cause highly toxic pollution. (Design Museum, 2021)
With his works, Mahama uses found objects to directly and indirectly addresses the ecological concerns facing our world today and draws parallels to the political context and failures. He delivers the message through a specific aesthetic language using materials and textures of objects.
Fig. 3 Michael Landy, Break Down, 2001
Michael Landy in his work named Break Down (2001), Fig.3, used objects in his art in a unique way by initially cataloguing everything he owned then destroying them.
He intended through his work to make a strong negative attack on Western society’s obsession with materiality and ownership. By destroyed all his everyday objects, he aimed to detach himself from the emotional connections to these objects he possessed. Break down (2001) was the artists way of protesting consumerism, capitalism and had a strong ecological message.
He planned the destruction of the items he owned in detail. His aim was to demonstrate what a person can accumulate in half of lifetime and, also highlight the difficulties in recycling some of the items he owned. The exhibition lasted for two weeks and took place in the closed down C&A flagship store on Oxford Street, the mecca of consumerism. The location provided the perfect site and context for Landy’s work, who aimed to deliver his message through destroying things, not making things to sell and buy. (Boldrick, 2021)
Ironically the result of his work was somehow unexpected as firstly he now needed to replenish everything he owned as a basic need to live and so added to his consumption. Secondly, the items he destroyed in his installation, became works of art, placing an the capitalistic ‘value’ to them. The concept of the value of found objects is central to their use in art. One issue of wasteful consumerism comes about because of the value relationship people have with objects that are designed to have single use or to be disposable. Using them in art changes that value relationship as it asks the viewer to rethink and revaluate the object itself and hopefully adds back some of that ‘amazement, open-mindedness, and wonder’ that Morton talks about in relationship to making them more visible and substantial.
Humour and storytelling
Objects used in humorous contexts or as providing a fictional narrative or signifying meaning are all found in the works of Peter Fischli (1952- ) and David Weiss (1946 – 2012).
Fig. 4 Peter Fischli and David Weiss, The Time at Our Disposal, 1984
The image in Fig. 4 shows a photograph from the series called Equilibres, also known as Quiet Afternoon from 1984. Peter Fischli and David Weiss balanced everyday household objects in an absurd and comical context. The constructions are ‘bold, fragile balancing acts comprised of objects that just happened to be at hand constructed in situ and photographed.’ (Frey, 2016)
The art historian Ammann wrote about the series that ‘these are also metaphors, like wise parables to start the day with: each day challenges us to a new balancing act’. They are delightful and intriguing at the same time and although made in 1984 still relevant to our current climate. Reimagining everyday materials, celebrating boredom, and letting chance create playful and unexpected results building a narrative from objects in the world around us, all feels relevant and current. (Ammann, 2016).
The Dada, Surrealism, and Pop Art influences can also be seen in the irony and playfulness of their work throughout all the years of their collaboration. For example, what Andy Warhol (1928 - 1987) did with his works: Brillo carton and Campbell’s soup cans, ‘a reconciliation with the ordinary’ is also seen in Fischli and Weiss’ works. There is a difference in surface, but not in spirit. (Danto in, 1996, p.109) Their work does not seem to have a political subtext. There is a simple candour to it.
Another comparison can be made between Fischli and Weiss and the other Swiss artist who used everyday materials for his kinetic constructions, Jean Tinquely (1925 - 1991). Homage to New York from 1960 is a great example of Tinquely’s use of discarded materials, which at the time was reflected in the trend of the 20th Century of ‘dematerialisation of the art object’. (Armstrong, 1996, p. 83-93)
This trend was originally started by Marcel Duchamp in 1913 by mounting the front wheel of a bicycle on a kitchen stool. With these readymades he created a ‘way out of art’, making an important contribution to the history of modern sculpture by ‘opening up a new dimension in aesthetic consciousness’. (Ruhrberg, 2016, p.457)
Therefore, Peter Fischli and David Weiss are permanently connected with the postmodern art movement. Their work feeds from that of their predecessors like Jean Tinquely (fabricator of self-destroying machines), Alexander Calder (1898 - 1976) (mobiles) and Joseph Beuys (1921 - 1986) (made art of everything that was ‘at hand’).
The objects in Equilibres were created then photographed then dismantled. The photographs become the art themselves and capture the moment of equilibrium perfectly forever. The question is whether this experience of the still image creates a sense of calm and stillness or gives you the feeling of it about to all collapse. Or is the strength of the image that it does both?
Regardless of their initial intention of using mundane found objects, it feels that there is another deeper meaning of using these items in their work, a possible unconscious ecological statement. The statement is not an obvious one, however, the art works as metaphors in an ecological context. They raise and challenge the perception of these objects as mundane and irrelevant and create a connectedness to apparently random associations that fits with the ecological thought of connectedness and drives inherent value. The overlay of humour, narrative and semiotics makes them more approachable and engaging.
Fig. 5 Peter Fischli and David Weiss, The Way Things Go, 1987, Film still
Following the Equilibres series, in 1987, they made a thirty-minute film (Fig. 5 film still), named The Way Things Go where they used the same everyday objects to create a chain reaction with a hypnotic kinetic energy. The Equilibres photographs were static images which implied the possibility of change and movement as opposed to the film which is a continuous chain reaction capturing your imagination without making you think of other possibilities as the movement and result is shown to you. This interconnectedness has strong ecological undertones, a butterfly effect shown through the apparently random interaction of the objects.
What is also striking about Fischli, and Weiss is that they have safeguarded a type of play which every one of us know from childhood regardless of whether you were good at make believe, and they have conveyed it unblemished into adulthood delivered through craftsmanship. This brings up the role of the hauntology of these objects. As Danto (1996) says ‘they carried it intact into adulthood’ to clarify that there would be something untainted in their play regardless of whether it may be contended that all of art is in some way or another consistent with types of play. For almost no art appears so prominently to display the imaginativeness of playful youth as does theirs. It changes knives, forks and spoons into mountain climbers and makes gymnastic performers out of vehicle tires so that they seem to have a will of their own. (Danto, 1996, p.97)
The playfulness of their work also inspires us to look closely at what lies around us. Their message is deeper than suspected when you first look at their work. This deeper meaning is that childhood play is the most crucial act of our early life. Humanity is directly influenced by our education during this time and play is a major part in this process. It creates our views and habits; this is the conditioning of our early years. It appears as if Fischli and Weiss are aware of the importance of childhood play when they created their constructions. This connection to the past is a way of strengthening the relationship with the objects that inspire this connection.
Peter Fischli and David Weiss explorations into making art from everyday objects inspired contemporary artists Matt Calderwood (1975- ) and Amir Zaki (1974- ). However, they have their own interpretation when working with found objects. With Calderwood, equilibrium is regularly the focal point of the work, whereas Zaki’s focus is on using technology to subtly alter reality in a way that makes the objects of his attention irrational, they exist for themselves, not for us. This is a direct correlation with the Morton’s thoughts that all things have agency, not just humans.
Zaki’s animation of Fischli and Weiss Equilibres (Fig. 6) he inverts the work of the swiss artists where they use unprofessional lighting to create unheroic images of their sculptures by creating elaborate 3D digital animations. These animations invert the purpose of Fischli and Weiss work by arranging them in a way that they never fail, he is making them heroic again. This playful fetishization of the objects and positioning them in a never-ending loop is an interesting angle on their ecological thought where they remain perfectly connected and in harmony.
Fig. 6 Amir Zaki, Installation at LAXART, 2010
Hauntological connections
The use of found objects in art where there is a hauntological element to the object is a useful tool for artists who want to carry forward meaning that derives from past associations to that object. It’s a useful shortcut to creating meaning, they are putting the ghost to work.
The term Hauntology it was first introduced by Jacques Derrida (1930 – 2004), an Algerian-born French philosopher and historian, in his book Spectres of Marx (1993). As Amelia Carruthers says in her article ‘the concept refers to a collective contemplation of alternative possibilities – those which have failed to occur or have been negated by our modern society’. Hauntology is a combined meaning of haunting and ontology and it’s a branch of philosophy that is concerned with the nature of being and existence. (Carruthers, 2019)
The relevance of this term became more present in the 2000’s, when critics Mark Fisher (1968 – 2017) and Simon Reynolds (1963- ) started to analyse modernity’s paradoxes, specifically with regards to the persistent recycling of the contemporary culture of past trends in fashion as well as in art. (Carruthers, 2019)
As it seen in the previous chapter, Peter Fischli and David Weiss’ Equilibres (Fig. 4), aimed to recycle that element of childhood play that is the most crucial act of our early life. They did this through creating with their everyday found objects a sense of play. These arrangements of random objects have a hauntological quality to them in that they can carry this meaning, these ‘ghosts of play’ through to the present.
Fig. 7 Wang Guangyi, Great Criticism – Coca Cola, 1994
In China, in the 1980’s an art movement emerged, called Political Pop (example Fig.7), that was a response to the steep economical evolution. This trend mixes the Western pop art with the Socialist Realism art movement and examinates the political and social environment of the soaring economical expansion of China. In Fig. 7 the use of the Coca Cola bottle is equally banal and semi-ironic.
The Coca Cola bottle is a fascinating example of Hauntology where the return and persistence of the iconic bottle is used to represent a cultural past. It’s a favoured found object for artists through time. Artists like Salvador Dali (1904 – 1989) in Poetry in America, (1943), Robert Rauschenberg in A Coca-Cola Plan (1957), Andy Warhol in The Grocery Shop show (1962), and many others, used it in their art works for its multiple cultural references.
Ecological Awareness
Fig. 8 Joseph Beuys, 7000 Oaks, 1982
Joseph Beuys (1921 – 1986), German artist, theorist, and teacher, also a founder of the Fluxus art movement made work across a very wide range of mediums, wanted to use art as a kind of spiritual means to heal the earth, to heal our culture. As a result, he initiated the concept of social sculpture in 1970’s. This was centred on the idea that art could include the entire process of living – thoughts, actions, conversations, and objects. (Wijers, 1996)
Through this concept, Beuys had a central belief that the power of universal human creativity will bring universal change. His actions initiated a trend of ecological awareness in art, and he created the basis of work that Timothy Morton will later come to call Ecological Thought.
Some of the contemporary artists, that have incorporated this concept ecological awareness in their work, directly or indirectly, are Sarah Sze (1969- ), Yu Li (1985- ) and Tadashi Kawamata (1953- ). Each one of them have different aims in their work, while at the same time all of them deliver their message of environmental impact while using found objects and debris in their installations.
If ecological action means not doing as much damage, rather than doing things more efficiently, then it is not ecological to insist or slap upside the head or the other similar current modes of supposedly ecological data delivery in general. These kinds of action are like trying to wake us up from this bardo-like dream - but the dreamlike quality it’s precisely what is most real about ecological reality, so in effect, throwing out factoids and statistics in information dump mode is making ecological experience, ecological politics, and ecological philosophy utterly impossible. (Morton, 2021, p.23)
Fig. 9 Sarah Sze, Seamless, 1999
Sarah Sze (1969- ) draws from modernist traditions of the found objects to create encyclopaedic installations that are charged with flux, transformation, and fragility. Her works question the value our society places on objects and how these objects attribute meaning to locations and moments we inhabit.
In her work Seamless (Fig. 9) from 1999 she incorporates functional, human-scale objects. The construction resembles the double helix shape of our DNA (the DNA molecules that determine the growth and reproduction of all our living things). The sculpture takes over in a seamless way all the space in the gallery, the doorways, corners, even behind the walls drawing attention to the details of the room’s architecture. (Enwezor, 2016)
Seamless (1999) is the artist’s way of marking time. She is interested in the objects that define or become a portrait of the behaviour of the time the work was made. It almost feels like an echo system, like the materials are active, organic. In this work, Sarah Sze created a piece of work that transcended the materiality of the objects.
Moreover, Sze includes in her work cheap, everyday objects and doing so she underlines the connection to the consumer culture. She is following in the footsteps of earlier twenties century art movements, constructivism, abstract art that reflected the industrial world.
When an individual object is removed from its use in the world to participate in a Sze environment, it leaves its previous function aside in order to participate in an entirely different universe. This reassignment of something familiar, whether a bottle cap or a smooth stone doesn’t change its intrinsic meaning; rather, it is Sze’s intention to absorb that intact meaning into a larger, more open-ended inquiry. Despite the factuality of each object Sze’s sculptures are organised towards search, as opposed to the discovery. This suggests that her oeuvre can be viewed through both a scientific and a philosophical lens, in addition to a purely aesthetic one. (Laura Hoptman for Enwezor, 2016, p.94)
Creating these intrinsic environments, Sze underlines the connection between present life to future ones. She creates collages of things that have come back from collections of detritus and waste, combining the concept of the hauntology of the objects and ecological thought.
This is because even though she uses objects in a way that ‘puts their previous function aside’ the hauntological relationship to these objects is the basis on which the art works, its reassignment created the attraction and the impact of the work.
Fig. 10 Yu Li, Jaded Ribs, 2021
Yu Li (1985 -) exhibition at Chisenhale Gallery, the Jaded Ribs (2021), is inspired by the riverbanks of the Thames River in London. Here the connection to found objects and waste is a more literal realisation of Ecological Thought. The artist reuses materials found from ruins and abandoned spaces. The emotions, memories and stories embedded in the found materials and objects that made up her work as seen in the image Fig. 10, which shows a hammock like structure overburdened with tension from the great weight it holds, investigates the tension between physical matter and energy.
Furthermore, her work at Chisenhale Gallery, draws a direct connection between the environmental concerns and memories imbedded in these found objects. This element of Hauntology in the objects makes their use so much more engaging and supports Morton’s thoughts about the connectedness of things and objects having agency.
Fig. 11 Tadashi Kawamata, Wave, 2016
The artist Tadashi Kawamata (1953- ) said ‘Nothing is permanent. No material can survive forever. Everything, on the contrary, is temporary.’
Using discarded materials, Kawamata’s work reaches further than the art context into fields such as architecture, history, and sociology. For the Wave installation, Fig. 11, made in 2016 in situ for the Under the Water-Metz exhibition at Centre Pompidou-Metz, the artist used reclaimed wood furniture inviting viewers to reassess their environment. The work was a recollection of the Japanese tsunami catastrophe from March 2011.
After the exhibition was taken apart the materials, importantly, were reused in other works and are a perfect illustration of his belief on the impermanence of everything.
This aspect of ecological thought where objects have their own agency is apparent in Kawamata’s work where the objects can be dismantled and reassembled in different forms but still have an interconnectedness to them.
The object itself
Central to the question of this dissertation around Ecological Thought and Hauntology is the object itself, specifically the use of found objects and their place and role in art. How does the materiality of the object itself add to or detract from the art?
Californian artist Edward Kienholz in 1970 said:
I really begin to understand any society by going through its junk shops in flea markets. It is a form of education and historical orientation for me. I can see the results of ideas in what is thrown away by culture. (Ruhrberg, 2016, p.509)
In his book Alien Phenomenology, or What It’s Like to Be a Thing, Ian Bogost questions the ethics of objects. He asks:
What of the things themselves? Does the tofu muster moral practice when slithering gently in the water of its plastic container? Does the piston when compressing air and petrol against the walls of its cylinder? Does the snowblower when its auger pulls powder from the ground and discharges it out a chute? (Bogost, 2012, p.77)
And these questions continue with more questions:
How do we deal with things that are also complex structures or systems crafted or used by humans? And even more so, how do we as humans strive to understand the relationships between particular objects in the
world, relations that go on without us, even if we may be their cause, subject, or beneficiary? How do we understand the green chile or the integrated circuit both as things left to themselves and as things
interacting with others, us among them? (Bogost, 2012, p.29)
Timothy Morton states that we become aware of objects only when they stick out, for example when you ‘slip embarrassing to towards the ground, you notice the floor for the first time, the colour, the pattern, the material – even though it was supporting you the whole while you were on your food shop mission.’ (Morton, 2021, p.9)
The semiotics of found objects when used in art are an integral part of the artwork itself, whether to trigger distant memories or create other a meaningful association particularly when associated with ecological narratives. Beyond this the objects themselves have an aesthetic appeal and the shapes and textures and mass can be used to further stimulate engagement with the artwork.
By looking at a Coca Cola bottle, for example, an object that successfully represents mass culture, we see an inviting glass hour shape, smooth at touch, transparent, easy to hold, aesthetically pleasant. The now famous bottle was created in 1916 to protect the famous trademark of Coca-Cola from competitors that were trying to imitate it to deceive the public into buying their drinks. The request for the designers was that the bottle be ‘so distinct that you would recognize if by feel in the dark or lying broken on the ground’.
The shape, later, was associated with well-known actress, Mae West, which was recognised for her curvaceous figure, giving the bottle one of most distinctive characteristics. (Coca - Cola Company, 2021)
This made the coke bottle a favourite found object for artists like Salvador Dali (Poetry in America, 1943), Robert Rauschenberg (A Coca-Cola Plan, 1957), Andy Warhol (The Grocery Shop show, 1962), and it’s used in art until this day for its multiple cultural references.
Shape, texture as well as cultural associations all play a part on the use of the found object in art. Sometimes to reinforce the relationship we have with them and sometimes to disrupt, to force a reappraisal of that relationship and understanding we have of that object.
Conclusion
This essay set out to explore how by using everyday found objects in artworks artists re-examine or position new works within the framing of Ecological Thought.
It began by understanding the Ecological Thought theory as presented by Timothy Morton, that argues that all forms of life are interconnected, and this connectivity penetrates all dimensions of life. He described this as the ‘mesh’ exploring the relationship between the inanimate and the human. He stated in his books that all things have agency to some degree – not just humans. This essay builds on the key theme that objects become more substantial and visible during ecological crisis.
It developed this thinking by exploring Harman who describes a philosophical point of view called Object Oriented Ontology that proposes that humans are not a privileged species as they believe themselves to be and that all non-human objects are autonomous. This complex interplay between non-human objects can change the relationship between objects used in artworks and the observer.
It developed the argument that through looking at the work of a select group of artists who have successfully used found objects in their art that the objects themselves do have agency and that this re-evaluation and revaluing of the objects has a strong ecological impact.
It found that the ecological message is also a political one and discovered how artists use objects in their art to fuel and provoke debate and discussion. How they support Morton’s thought that artforms have something to tell us about the environment by making us question reality. It demonstrated through artists such as Mahama that found objects can play part in addressing the ecological concerns of the world today. This is through the harnessing cultural resonance that these objects create a connection to the viewer and make the ecological issue that much more meaningful. It shows that a key issue of wasteful consumerism comes about because of the poor value relationship people have with objects that are designed to have single use or to be disposable. Using these objects in art changes that value relationship as it asks the viewer to rethink and revaluate the object itself and make them more visible and substantial.
It found that humour and storytelling are a way of raising the objects from the mundane and irrelevant and creating those important human connections that are a central to Ecological Thought. By imbuing objects with humour, they can drive reappraisal and deliver some of the amazement open mindedness and wonder that Morton refers to in The Ecological Thought (2010).
It introduced the concept of Hauntology as being central to the ecological message. It argued that objects that carry a ghost of their past forwards and that this creates a stronger and more meaningful connection to the object. This is proposed as a reason why Harman believes that objects are autonomous and why Morton thinks they become more visible.
It looked at artists who are active in creating ecological awareness through their use of found objects in art. It showed as an example Sarah Sze who purposefully reassigns the original intended use of the objects as a way of challenging your relationship with that object and delivering an ecological message.
In the last chapter it looked at the object itself and concluded that every object is imbued with meaning and connection whether from a hauntological point of view in relation to experience or current use. That this meaning is a direct expression of what Morton talks about as objects having an ecological response.
So, in conclusion using found objects do play a significant role in how artists re-examine, or position new works within the framing of Ecological Thought. It was demonstrated that the ecological message is a political one and discovering how artists use objects in their art to fuel and provoke debate and discussion has been central to writing this. With Landy’s wasteful consumerism message he addressed the relationship people have with objects that are designed to be disposable and his use of them allowed the viewer to revaluate their relationship with them. It was shown that the effect of using found objects in art will raise the inherent value of them not just in their material value but also in how powerful they become in creating emotional connections. These connections reinforced the hauntological overtones that create these connections. Through all this the ecological narrative can be better told, not just in a superficial way as about waste and consumerism, but about how we are all part of the ‘mesh’ and that we have a part to play in being considerate and thoughtful about not just human relationships but non-human ones as well.
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Image List
Fig. 1 Arman, Accumulation of Cans, 1961, Enamel pitchers in plexiglass showcase
Fig. 2 Ibrahim Mahama, Out of Bounds, 2014-2015
Fig. 3 Michael Landy, Break Down, 2001
Fig. 4 Peter Fischli and David Weiss, The Time at Our Disposal, 1984
Fig. 5 Peter Fischli and David Weiss, The Way Things Go, 1987, Film still
Fig. 6 Amir Zaki, Installation at LAXART, 2010
Fig.7 Wang Guangyi, Great Criticism – Coca Cola, 1994
Fig. 8 Joseph Beuys, 7000 Oaks, 1982
Fig. 9 Sarah Sze, Seamless, 1999
Fig. 10 Yu Li, Jaded Ribs, 2021
Fig. 11 Tadashi Kawamata, Wave, 2016. Reclaimed wood furniture elements.
