Part 3
Neurath’s Boat
curated by Frances Loeffler
Opening 17 October 2012
Featuring works by Amit Charan, Jasper Coppes, Gabriele De Santis, Frank Heath and Francesco Pedraglio.
This exhibition takes the parable of the Ship of Theseus to reflect on the philosophical conundrum of whether an object, which has had all component parts replaced, can remain fundamentally the same. In the various versions of the parable, an object is gradually remade over a period of time. The constellation of the whole endures, while the individual fragments are replaced.
At a basic level, all things are constantly in transformation. Our bodies change continuously, turning over cells many
millions of times. In artistic terms, the parable raises questions about the nature and status of the art object.
What happens when objects do not behave as objects? When a finite form becomes a constellation with multiple starting points and destinations? While they retain their status as material forms, can objects also take on the qualities of immaterial processes, becoming fluid and transitive, like the activity of thinking, storytelling or conversation?
The artworks in this exhibition allude to or are in some way implicated in this question of material reconstitution, often balancing between movement and stasis, sameness and change. Forming part of a programme of sequential exhibitions, in which each curator responds to or develops their predecessor’s presentation, the exhibition itself is a revision, a plank replaced on the open sea.
Frances Loeffler
Via della Vetrina 9
00186 Roma
Italy
