(Archive) Mutual Darkness of Objects

The bathmat

Over a 11-week period, I documented the position and shape of the bathroom mat in my shared household when it frustrated me. The 28 mat versions that resulted from this were then meticulously recreated to scale and preserved in ceramics. These objects contain the unwittingly youthful and vital movements of my roommate, an energy which I wish to preserve since it is in heavy contrast with that of mine.

'Mutual Darkness of Objects' is an ongoing research documentation about discovering a narrative from a non-human starting point. The title refers to the idea that objects never make direct contact with each other, any more than with the human mind, but require a mediator for such contact to occur. This "mutual darkness" or "mutual withdrawal" of things, a term used by Heidegger, makes reality only accessible with indirect language, such as metaphors in aesthetics and poetry.

Within this research the (non-human) object is used as a ‘tracer’ to trace the worlds it passes through. By observing and analyzing the object in the different networks of actions in which it is engaged, I’m hoping to extract a communicative value out of the various gestures of the object.