Material Witness

studio objects: held

 

Choosing from a collection in my studio, these found objects can be  contemplated as they are being held for the camera to see. Pierre Tielhard De Chardin has said that "Matter is spirit moving slowly enough to be seen.” Would he say that Spirit moves at different speeds in different objects? Is Spirit in the living human body different than Spirit in the inanimate objects that it holds and in fact, do these inanimate objects contain Spirit? We are constantly interacting with the materials of the world. The philosopher/phenomenologist Merleau-Ponty indicates that "Body and world, like past and present . . . are 'interwoven' in such a way that seemingly neat conceptual distinctions between them are bound to distort and misrepresent the phenomena as we actually live and understand them in preconceptual, prereflective, prearticulate ways." https://ndpr.nd.edu/reviews/the-thinking-of-the-sensible-merleau-ponty-s-a-philosophy/