Inert Matter then Live Wire

As one of the curators for this exhibition observed objects as non-passive, animate producers of effects. Titled “Inert matter, then live wire”, the exhibition explored material culture, featuring objects from the University of the Arts Archives and Special Collections portion of the David Usborne collection, an assemblage of functional, aesthetically pleasing things. The exhibition title is an excerpt from Jane Bennett’s Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things and references the concept of “thing-power”.

The collection can broadly be described as a collection of valuable tools dating from the twentieth century. The collection contains over 500 objects, apparatus, and instruments representing a range of disciplines and geographies. Proposing that collecting is a creative practice and providing a platform for a dialogue between object and viewer, the Window Gallery at Central Saint Martins was transformed into a studio environment.

In the foreground of the exhibition, a curated selection of objects was installed ‘in conversation’ with one another. This is just one possible interpretation of those objects and is an example of how viewers could interpret and analyse objects in alternative ways. The installation played on the ambiguity of the objects, their potential to encourage multiple interpretations and their ability to communicate different narratives.

The exhibition also included a programme of interventions. The curators interacted with the objects in the space, adding to the installation – referencing the practice of collecting and encouraging a creative dialogue between object and viewer.