Talking Objects

Talking Objects gives attention to works of art that draw meaning from commonplace items, familiar scenes and everyday representations. Through examining the saturation of meaning they embody, the artworks presented explore the ambiguity of histories and memories the material and visual world holds.

“The surest, and the quickest, way for us to arouse the sense of wonder is to stare, unafraid, at a single object. Suddenly—miraculously—it will look like something we have never seen before.” (Cesare Pavese, Dialogues with Leucó, 1947)

Just as the Italian novelist and poet Casare Pavese, in approaching myths, transformed familiar stories to offer fresh perspectives on (perhaps also to cope with) the ever-changing present, artists in the exhibition inscribe human experience and emotions into ordinary things and familiar scenes and imbue them with new narratives and meanings. What is mundane, when transformed into objects / subjects of art, become instruments of expression: words become gestures; language turns visual; the intangible made material; and the inanimate takes on life and becomes body. Humble items are mystified while aestheticised images project everyday potency.

Through the artist lens of artists and works, Talking Objects encourages a close looking at the world around us and to seek new ways of seeing, thinking and meaning. Living amidst an entropy of images, information and values, how do we talk with and about objects and what do talking objects say of us?

Image credits: Myat Kyawt, details from series of Still Life paintings, 2003.