SET
Catherine Beaudette
Nova Scotia College of Art and Design
MFA Thesis
Halifax, June 1998

Committee: Gerald Ferguson
Alex Livingston
Susan McEachern
Wilma Needham
Susan Wood

 TABLE

1.

set'

2(1) eGGs

2(ii) IOOking

3. sEEing

4.

5.

taxonomy ...

NOTES I, II, III

6.

Bibliography

 set

1267

Ht 1 /set/ v. (setting: past and past part. set) 1 tr. put,
· lay, or stand Ca thiniz) in a certain oosition or location
(set tt on the table; set it upright). 2 tr. (t"oll. t>y to) app1y
(one thing) to (another) (set pen to paper). 3 tr. a fix
ready or in position. b dispose suitably for use, action,
or display. 4 tr. a adjust the hands of (a clock or watch)
to show the right time. b adjust (an alarm clock) to
sound at the required time. 5 tr. a fix, arrange, or
mount. b insert (a jewel) in a ring, framework, etc. 6 tr.
make (a device) ready to operate. 7 tr. lay (a table) for a
meal. 8 tr. arrange (the hair) while damp so that it
dries in the required style. 9 tr. (foll. by with) ornament
or provide (a surface, esp. a precious item) (gold set with
gems). 10 tr. bring by placing or arranging or other
means into a specified state; cause to be (set things in
motion; set tt on fire). 11 intr. & tr. harden or_ solidify
(the jelly is set; the cement has set). 12 intr. (of the sun,
moon, etc.) appear to move towards and below the
earth's horizon (as the earth rotates). 13 tr. represent (a
story, play, scene, etc.) as happening in a certain time
or place. 14 tr. a (foll. by to + inftn.) cause or instruct
(a person) to perform a specified activity (set them to
work). b (foll. by pres. part.) start (a person or thing)
doing something (set him chatting; set the ball rolling).
15 tr. present or impose as work to be done or a matter
to be dealt with (set them an essay). 16 tr. exhibit as a
type or model (set a good example). 17 tr. initiate; take
the lead in (set the fashion; set the pace). 18 tr. establish
(a record etc.). 19 tr. determine or decide·(the ttinerary
is set). 20 tr. appoint or establish (set them in authority).
21 tr. join, attach, or fasten. 22 tr. a put parts of (a
broken or dislocated bone, limb, etc.) into the correct
position for healing. b deal with (a fracture or
dislocation) in this way. 23 tr. (in full set to music)
provide (words etc.) with music for singing. 24 tr.
(often foll. by up) Printing a arrange or produce (type
or film etc.) as required. b arrange the type or film etc.
for (a book etc.). 25 intr. (of a tide, current, etc.) have a
certain motion or direction. 26 intr. (of a face) assume
a hard expression. 27 tr. a cause (a hen) to sit on eggs.
b place (eggs) for a hen to sit on. 28 tr. put (a seed,
plant, etc.) in the ground to grow. 29 tr. give the teeth
of (a saw) an alternate outward inclination. 30 tr. esp.
US start (a fire). 31 tntr. (of eyes etc.) become
motionless. 32 intr. feel or show a certain tendency
(opinion ts setting against it). 33 intr. a (of blossom)
form into fruit. b (of fruit) develop from blossom. c (of
a tree) develop fruit. 34 tntr. (in full set to partner) (of
a dancer) take a position facing one's partner. 35 intr.
(of a hunting dog) take a rigid attitude indicating the
presence of game. 36 tntr. dial. or stang sit. c set
about 1 begin or take steps towards. 2 Brit. colloq.
attack. set against 1 consider or reckon (a person or
thing) as a counterpoise or compensation for (another).
2 cause (a person or persons) to oppose (a person or
thing). set apart separate,, reserve, differentiate. set
aside see ASIDE. set back 1 'place further back in place
or time. 2 impede or reverse the progress of. 3 colloq.
cost (a person) a specified amount. set by archaic or US
save for future use. set down 1 record in writing. 2
allow to alight from a vehicle. 3 (foll. by to) attribute to.
4 (.foll. by as) explain or describe to oneself as. set eyes
on see EYE. set one's face against see FACE. set foot
on (or ln) see FOOT. set forth 1 begin a journey. 2 make
known; expound. set forward begin to advance. set
free release. set one's hand to see HAND. set one's
heart (or hopes) on want or hope for eagerly. set in 1
(of weather, a condition, etc.) begin (and seem likely to
continue), become established. 2 insert (esp. a sleeve
etc. into a garment). set little by consider to be of little
value. set a penon's mind at rest see MINE· s~t muc~

Ul!L i ·zoo S she 3 decision 8 thin O this

by consider to be of much value. set off 1 begin a
journey. 2 detonate (a bomb etc.). 3 initiate·, stimulate.
4 cause (a person) to start laughing, talking, · etc. 5
serve as an adornment or foil to; enhance. 8 (foll. by
against) use as a compensating item. set on (or upon)
1 attack violently. 2 cause or urge to attack. set out 1
begin a journey. 2 (foll. by to + infln.) aim or intend'. 3
demonstrate, arrange, or exhibit. 4 mark out. 5 declare.
set sail 1 hoist the sails. 2 beizin a vovaize. set the
scene see SCENE. set the stage see STAGE. set store by
(or on) see STORE. set one's teeth- 1 clench them. 2
summon one's resolve. set to begin doing something
vigorously, esp. fighting, arguing, or eating. set up 1
place in position or view. 2 organize or start (a
business etc.). 3 establish in some capacity. 4 supply
the needs of. 5 begin making (a loud sound). 8 cause or
make arrangements for (a condition or situation). 7
prepare (a task.etc. for another). 8 restore or enhance
the health of (a person). 9 establish (a record). 10
propound (a theory). 11 colloq. cause (a person) to
incriminate himself or herself or to look foolish; frame
(a person). set oneself up as make pretensions to
being. [Old English settan, from Germanic]
1et2 /set/ n. 1 a number of things or persons that belong
together or resemble one another or are usually found
together. 2 a collection or group. 3 a section of society
consorting together or having similar interests etc. 4 a
collection of implements, vessels, etc., regarded
collectively and needed for a specified purpose (cricket
set; teaset; a set of teeth). 5 a piece of electric or
electronic apparatus, esp. a radio or television receiver.
6 (in tennis, darts, etc.) a group of games counting as a
unit towards a match for the player or side that wins a
defined number or proportion of the games. 7 Math. &
Logic a collection of distinct entities, individually
specified or satisfying specified conditions, forming a
unit. 8 a group of pupils or students having the same
average ability. 9 a a slip, shoot, bulb, etc., for planting.
b a young fruit just set. 10 a a habitual posture or
conformation; the way the head etc. is carried or a
dress etc. flows. b (also dead set) a setter's pointing in
the presence of game. 11 the way, drift, or tendency (of
a current, public opinion, state of mind, etc.) (the set of
public feeling is against it). 12 the way in which a
machine, device, etc., is set or adjusted. 13 esp. Austral.
& NZ colloq. a grudge. 14 a the alternate outward
deflection of the teeth of a saw. b the amount of this. 15
the last coat of plaster on a wall. 16 Printing a the
amount of spacing in type controlling the distance
between letters. b the width of a piece of type. 17 a
warp or bend or displacement caused by continued
pressure or a continued position. 18 a setting,
including stage furniture etc., for a play or film etc. 19
a sequence of songs or pieces performed in jazz or
popular music. 20 the setting of the hair when damp.
21 var. of SETI' 1. 22 var. of SETl' 2. 23 a predisposition
or expectation influencing a response. 24 a number of
people making up a square dance. c make a dead set
at Brit. 1 make a determined attack on. 2 seek to win
the affections of. [sense 1 (and related senses) via Old
French sette from Latin secta SECT: other senses from
srr 1)
set3 /set/ adj. 1 in senses of srr1• 2 prescribed or
determined in advance. 3 fixed, unchanging, unmoving.
4 (of a phrase or speech etc.) having invariable or
predetermined wording; not extempore. 5 prepared for
action. 6 (foll. by on, upon) determined to acquire or
achieve etc. 7 (of a book etc.) specified for reading in
preparation for an examination. [past part. ofur1]

lJ ring x loch

tJ chip d3 jar (see over for vowels)

 2

eGGs
OOlogy: the study or collection of birds'
eggs. Egg v.: to urge, colloq. as sure as
eggs is, have all of one's eggs in one's
basket, a tough egg. e.g.- hawk egg, spruce
grouse egg, turkey vulture egg, robin egg.
Eggshell( of paint)-with a slight gloss finish.
(Oxford Concise English Dictionary) Eggshaped: oval, elliptical, ellipsoidal. Cone
shaped eggs from birds that nest in cliffs.
Eggs that imitate rocks. Evolution, mimicry.
Detritus. Still life, domestic space, female
domain, nature, nurture. Creating form,
primary form, the first form we learn to
draw. Representation. Eggs in boxes,
cultural space framing natural form. The
grid.

IOOking

"We will now speak of the mode in which objects
must be presented to the senses, if the impression is
to be distinct. This can be readily understood if we
consider the processes of actual vision. If the object
is to be clearly seen it is necessary:(l)that it be
placed before the eyes;(2)not far off, but at a
reasonable distance;(3) not on one side, but straight
before the eyes;( 4)and so that the front of the object
be not turned away from, but directed towards, the
observer;(5)that the eyes first take in the object as a
whole;(6)and then proceed to distinguish the
parts;(7)inspecting these in order from the
beginning to the end;(8)that attention be paid to
each and every part;(9)until they are all grasped by
means of their essential attributes.
If these
requisites be properly observed, vision takes place
successfully; but if one be neglected its success is
only partial." Comenius, The Great Didactic, 1641.

 3

sEEing

Constantijn Huygens
was a Dutch scholar in
the 1ih century who
endorsed modem
thinking and new
technology over the
wisdom of the ancients
and traditional learning.
He believed in the eye's
ability to report new
knowledge and had faith
in the microscope,
lenses, and the camera
obscura, though many
were skeptical of their
deception of sight.
Huygens related the
reversal of the world
seen through the camera
obscura to the reversal
of truths or the lies
produced by men, and
historians. Huygens and
others believed in the
teachings of Francis
Bacon. Bacon turned to
nature, away from the
superstitious stories of
books, to the world
known through seeing,
the primal experience
over the mediated one.

The founding of the
Royal Society for the
Pursuit of knowledge,
after Bacon's death,
attested to the shift away
from intellectual
authority toward a
visual understanding of
the world. The eye and
the hand, observation
and recording present a
new knowledge that is
visible and accessible.
Isaac Beeckman was an
ordained minister and
teacher, and an
enthusiastic Baconian.
He tested Bacon's
experiments and
corrected or updated the
mistakes he found in
them. From 1604-1634
Beeckman kept a
detailed diary of these
and other things that he
questioned through
observation. He relied
on visible signs as
indicators and
understanding through
seeing which he
demonstrated in the
extreme act of
performing an autopsy
on his brother to
determine the cause of
death.

At the same time,
surgeons were performing
dissections. Kriowledge of
the human body was to be
learned from the careful
examination of cadavers
and the subsequent
illustrations done in close
association with the
anatomists. "Whoever has
once seen a dissection of
the human body will
understand and remember
the relative position of its
parts with far greater
certainty than if he had
read the most exhaustive
treatises on anatomy, but
had never actually seen a
dissection performed.
Hence the saying "Seeing
is believing"." These
words are from the Great
Didactic, a detailed
program for school reform
by Comenius, the leading
Protestant theorist of
education of the time.
Comenius was a
contemporary of Huygens
and acknowledged the
Baconian manner of
material emphasis in his
use of a visual basis for
educational schemes. In
1658 he created the first
picture book for children,
Orbis Pictus, as a tool for
teaching language,
marking a shift from
words to the things that the
words referred to.

 4

taxonomy .......

Order
Naming
Systematics
Classification
A slow science.
Visual observation ..
Palpable knowledge ...
Perceived relationships ....
Workable system of cataloguing .....
Morphological, physiological, ecological ..... .
Attempting to reveal interconnectedness of organisms.
Employing extraordinary care to link up the world's diversity.
Synthetic system reflecting natural relationships as closely as possible.
Informed opinion based on experience and familiarity with thousands of organisms.
A fiction of coherence holding disparate things together by the belief that ordering and
classifying provide an understanding of the world.
The illusion that order is information and structure presupposes knowledge: "Nothing conveys
more vividly and compellingly the notion of a destiny shaping human ends than do the great
styles, whose evolutions and transformations seem like long scars that Fate has left, in passing,
on the face:of the earth."(Crump p.53)

 5

NOTES I
" .. .I build up a many faceted structure in which each brief text is close to others in a series that
does not imply logical sequence or a hierarchy, but a network in which one can follow multiple
routes and draw multiple ramified conclusions."
ltalo Calvino.
from Six Memos for the Next Millennium

;

JI

As I try to continue with this format; lists, columns, structure, the limitations become
daunting and restrictive, too set. I am trying to break the rules and so these notes will
reflect that. ~ t I like about allegory is the permissi_£n it gives !Q..[Oami2~aning_
!9rough crazy juxtapositions. Baudelaire describes it as laughter; the collision of two
contrary feelings. These notes are roaming fragments.

The Arcades Project was an unfinished fragmentary document at the time of Benjamin's
death in 1940. It is a series of notes, texts and excerpts in various stages of completion.
Benjamin referred to his document as "the theatre of all my struggles and all my ideas",
implying some kind performance. Perhaps Benjamin was leaving room for audience
1~
participation. He did not impose an order on the pieces of his puzzle or false structure
linki~g disparate fra~m~nts. It is in this spirit that I pres~nt these notes .. Allegory permits
. ~ roammg. New associations can break down old assumpt1onsand reconfigure knowledge.
In allegory, meaning is inserted, not inherent. Allegory is what you make it out to be.

/

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*
The word set implies a prescribed arrangement, a fixed order, an intervention, a
mediation and some sort of convention or standards within which to conform. It is the
invisibility of what is set that I am interested in. Although things may be established,
organized or displayed in life, the framework within which they are contained is not
always clear despite being firmly set. Set could be to harden or solidify like jelly, to put
broken parts back together, to set the table or set up a still life. Set could also be a pair, a
grouping or a collection of things with some kind of relationship between the parts. Set
denotes a fixed placement, an interference in the natural order which may be visible or
may be so deeply encoded as to pass unnoticed.
*
The French word 'sous-entendu' literally means 'beneath understanding'. It refers to the
codes we participate in. To overstep the boundaries would be to operate 'under the table'.
Idioms can be antithetical; set apart, set against, set out, set off. To set forth or to make
known, sums up the underlying rules contained in specific states and my need to take
note(s). It is the difference between looking and seeing or passive and active viewing.
*
Walter Benjamin describes the dialectical image as a flash, a pause, when the past and
present collide, the then and now recognize each other. Similarly, Laurie Anderson in
her recorded musical performance United States, describes our shock when, reading the
cereal box in the morning, we realize that what we are reading is what we are eating.
Language and reality collide in recognition.

 6

*
It is not a particular symbolism of the egg that I am calling attention to in my paintings,
but the potential for a variety of meanings. It is the context in which the egg appears that
is the determinant. The Belgian artist, Marcel Broodthaers emphasized that the
importance lies in the base. He explored the equivocal nature of the representation of
reality. In his mussel sculptures les moules, the layered meaning of the works is
emphasized in their supporting material, or what contains them. A pot , a fryer, a basket,
a chair or table provide an underlying structure of framework that upholds the mussels
and presents them to the audience. In referring to the base, Broodthaers is alluding to the
construction of knowledge by the system that supports it, in this case the museum.
*
Flaubert's last unfinished novel was to contain a "Dictionary of Received
Ideas".(Crump,p.47) Perhaps this manual would have clarified the difference between
words and language, objects and their representation, nature and culture, chaos and
order.
*
The eggs are set in boxes and all of them are set in paint. The eggs are nature, the boxes
provide context, the paint is the hand of the allegorist. Contained and confined in an
assigned order unrelated to their habitat, a cultural imperative is placed upon dislocated
elements. It is the dialectical prompt that Benjamin seeks in artifacts that are liberated
from their usual context, a collision of opposites.

*
Early still life painting in Roman villas or xenia, describe the shift from nature to culture.
Philostratus writes of Xenia I, " ... Purple figs dripping with juice are heaped on vineleaves; and they are depicted with breaks in the skin, some just cracking open to disgorge
their honey, some split apart, they are so ripe ... " and Xenia II " ... As for the ducks near the
hare(count them, ten), and the geese ... If you crave for raised bread or 'eight-piece
loaves', they are here near by in the deep basket. And if you want any relish, you have
the loaves themselves - for they have been seasoned with fennel and parsley and also
with poppy-seed, the spice that brings sleep ... "(Bryson, p.18-19) In Xenia I the food is
raw and unadorned, as nature is itself. There are no signs of the household, cultural work,
or social distance between the host and the guest it was intended for. These paintings
were gifts and were accompanied by food which was to be prepared by the guests in their
separate quf1.r1:ers. Xenia II moves away from nature toward culture and progress. The
food requires cooking and preparation, it is structured into dishes, seasoned and
sweetened. It no longer presents pre-cultural abundance, but the taming of nature and the
cornrnodities of affluence. Xenia I presents 'still life', while Xenia II records a
phenomenon. (Bryson)

*

 7

While much of still life painting is dismissed as descriptive, there is however, a lot to
describe. The exclusion of the distraction of the figure in favour of the discourse
surrounding objects presents the life of people among material things. In 171h century
Dutch still life, there is a dialogue between a newly affluent society and its material
possessions. In this artwork, there is a reflection of wealth back to the society that
produced it; a phenomenon of plenty. In the 'still life of disorder', fallen vessels,
scattered food, and teetering plates allude to the precarious balance between production
and consumption in a mercantile society.(Bryson) Does broken bread signify a loss of
moral grip?
*
In the still life painting of the table, the home is important. There is a simplicity to the
domestic space, the ordinariness of everyday life that greatness overlooks, that gives one
the room to breathe and sort out the complexities of the world. Chardin enters the space
without disturbing the scene, painting it as he finds it. Unlike the more controlled forces
and redesigned space in much of Dutch still life painting, Chardin's oeuvre seems to
respect the presence of a natural harmony. In the paintings of Vermeer, the home is
where knowledge is absorbed and digested. The outside world is brought into the
woman's domain through maps and men. The home is presented as a place of subjective
knowledge where one's experience can contrast a seemingly greater wisdom. These
paintings give credence to a smaller voice through the attention to the detail of everyday
life. They are descriptive and familiar, the antithesis of the mathematical, classical
approach of Italian painting. The grand themes of heroism, passion, and sacrifice were
rejected in favour of the observational craft of recording the visible world. In the 1]1h
century, 'seeing' challenged inherited wisdom with a new kind of knowledge that was
visible in a more immediate world. (Alpers)
*
Mapmaking and picturing challenged texts as a way of knowledge. Maps outlined the
world as it was known at the time. Anatomical atlases illustrated the human figure as it
became known through dissection. Both were altered and added to as more information
became available. It was a cumulative approach to knowledge, depicting an increasingly
detailed portrait of the world, never complete, ever-changing. The value of a map or an
anatomical drawing was that it allowed one to see what was invisible, and thus gain an
understanding of a more expansive world. Marcel Broodthaers also used maps to better
understand the forces at work in the world. In one of his last works, The conquest of
Space: atlas for the use of artists and the military, he provided a dictionary of shapes
listed alphabetically in a tiny book. The silhouetted maps of countries are a resource for
artists that reflects the " ... socio-economic and political interests behind the apparatus of
the cultural industry ... "(Buch. 1980,p.56)

 8

NOTES II
Rhopography is the depiction of things lacking importance. Rhopos(trivial objects) are
paradoxical to the human impulse towards greatness. It is a version of the world without
its grand narratives, the whisperings of small things. Pliny describes the Greek painter of
the lower genres rhyparograpos, painter of waste. (Bryson,p.136) At Pompeii, The
Unswept Floor after Sosos of Pergamum depicts the litter of the kitchen scattered on the
floor, as one might come upon it. A lot of my work could be described as detritus, a
redemptive practice. Among the characters that roam the streets of Paris and the pages of
Baudelaire's books, is the allegorical figure in the form of the rag picker. He is the model
for the historical materialist. He does not succumb to the lure of the marketplace nor is
he fooled by the illusion that newer is better. He sees value in what is discarded, the
refuse of society. He collects the old in favour of the new and renders them useful by
reinstating their use value, 'everything old is new again'. His irony is that he is a social
outcast, living on the margins, dressed in rags. The historical materialist looks for traces
and fragments, deciphering their meaning in the afterlife of the object.
*
The 18th century French fortress town of Louisbourg was strategically located at the
gateway to the St. Lawrence and more importantly, near the abundant cod stocks which
ensured a large supply of fish for the Catholic parishioners in France. Its location
however, was an easy target for the British attack of 1745. The town was buried under
gunfire until it was excavated in the 1960's. Archaeology unearths the same basic
objects, simple utensils and prime objects such as plates, bowls, and jars. These objects,
unlike technologies, are slow to change, requiring only modification after their initial
conception as forms. They are tied to actions repeated by every user in the same way,
generation after generation, century after century. There are many such objects in
Louisbourg. Most are in fragments and only some have been restored. There is one
artifact of particular interest to me. The archaeologist called it a "rare find" because it
was unearthed in one piece. I found it extraordinary as the exact same tool is still in use
(or perhaps back in use) today. It is the wooden reel used in jigging for cod. History
stands still, progress is an illusion.
*
Historical archaeology combines the analysis of physical remains with the
anthropological study of customs and habits. This combination allows a significant
amount of room for conjecture. In the storage areas at Louisbourg, artifacts are classified
in drawers according to their provenance and the property from which they were
excavated. In this way, each cupboard is like a home; the Duquenelle property, the
widow Chevalier's, the Dugas, etc. Identifying its possible owner seems to imbue the
artifact with meaning. In the museum at the 'reconstructed sight' visited by the public,
the artifacts are presented in display cabinets grouped together according to type: coarse

 9

earthenware, faience, stemware, and blue-green glass. All sense of story is missing.
Imposed order conveys authority minimizing the history of the people.
*
Michel Foucault studied power and how it is transmitted in systems of knowledge.
In the preface to The Order of Things, he cites a middle ground between the empirical
order governing the codes of culture and the universal order established through scientific
theories. "It is here that a culture, imperceptibly deviating from the empirical orders
prescribed for it by its primary codes, instituting an initial separation from them causes
them to lose their original transparency, relinquishes its immediate and invisible powers,
frees itself sufficiently to discover that these orders are perhaps not the only possible ones
or the best ones."(Foucault, p.xx)

*
Foucault's preface: "This book first arose out of a passage in Borges, out of the laughter
that shattered, as I read the passage, all the familiar landmarks of my thought-our
thought. .. This passage quotes a 'certain Chinese encyclopedia' in which it is written that
'animals are divided into: (a) belonging to the Emperor, (b) embalmed, (c) tame, (d)
suckling pigs, (e)sirens, (f) fabulous, (g) stray dogs, (h) ... "(Foucault, p.xv)
Foucault refers to his enterprise, not as a history, but as an archaeology, suggesting not
the documentation of a development, but the excavation of information. In the chapter on
classifying, the separation of knowledge into two distinct realms is marked as the
beginning of natural history when the description of a plant or animal was divorced from
its virtues, legends, medicinal properties, culinary possibilities and ancient folklore. Prior
to natural history, there was no distinction between what was observed and what had
become its cultural fabric. Natural history limited its description to visual observation
defined in a faithful and meticulous manner devoid of mediating commentary.
In one of Marcel Broodthaers' fictional museums, Departement des Figures - The Eagle
from the Oligoceron to the Present, he brought together 270 manifestations of eagles
which challenged the categorization of art. His classification system juxtaposed
contemporary eagles next to historical ones, representations from natural history
alongside that of the military; order as disorder. By assembling so many manifestations of
the eagle: as emblem, sculpture, stamp, photograph, label, etc., Broodthaers reintroduces
the component of description that Natural History eliminated. Like the later historians, he
is liberating history from Classical rationality and revealing a taxonomy based on cultural,
social, and economic factors. He presents the eagle as everything that it has become,
reification as its description.
*
I have had the opportunity to establish my own system of classification. In cataloguing
anatomical atlases owned by Ken Roberts, I recognized that the collection contained
many stories. Most are entrenched in the history of anatomy, but some are anecdotal and
personal in nature. Many of these exist not in the collection itself, but in its provenance.

 10

It seemed fitting to classify these books in such a way that acknowledged the history of
the collection. We established a sequence that was nonlinear and subjective. We chose
not to categorized chronologically, or alphabetically, or by subject or country of origin.
Instead we began with highlights, the treasured favorites, and branched out from there
depending on the mood of the moment. The catalogue was driven by a different set of
perimeters. In the end we created a register that reflects the bias of the owner, tlie
indulgence of the cataloguer and specifically not the order prescribed by the institution.

NOTES III
In the Flaubert novel, Bovard and Pecuchet, two Parisian clerks inherit a small fortune
and leave their jobs to discover the real world. They move to the country and take up
farming, yet without success. They try many different activities, arboriculture, garden
architecture, chemistry, geology, archaeology, yet fail at all of them. They consult guides
and manuals only to find contradictions and misinformation everywhere. When they
finally accept the unreliability of knowledge, they go back to what they know; copying.
They copy information hoping to understand the world through lists and tables of their
own taxonomy. They simply record the facts and statistics, a retrieval position where
information supplants ideas.(Crump, pp.4 7 ,8)
*
The textbook Art in Theory 1900-1990 is subtitled An Anthology of Changing Ideas. It
is a large collection of the literature of modem art aimed at the student. It is the practice
of students and teachers alike to highlight sections of the text they feel are important. The
result of this highlighting is a personal interpretation that could be lifted from the body of
the text, an edited version or perhaps a mediation in the annals of theoretical writing. If
the highlighted text were isolated and transcribed from a number of these books, an equal
number of 'translations' would come to light. If theory is a mediated version of
knowledge, then these translations are interventions of mediations.
*
To simplify things, Broodthaers stenciled letters from the alphabet onto canvas. As the
basic component of language, letters deconstruct the image to its fundamental structure.
"We pass from the alphabet to the word, from the word to the elementary phrase and from
there to the object, which has become dependent on the word(praise the subject), that is to
say, the subject".(Goldman p.55)

*
"Both externally and stylistically - in the extreme character of the typographical
arrangement and in the use of highly charged metaphors- the written word tends toward
the visual. It is not possible to conceive of a starker opposite to the artistic symbol, the
plastic symbol, the image of organic totality, than this amorphous fragment which is seen
in the form of allegorical script. In it the baroque reveals itself to be the sovereign
opposite of classicism"(Benjamin 1977, p.176)

 11

*
In his article On the Museums Ruin, Douglas Crimp quotes Leo Steinberg on Robert
Rauschenberg. "This flatbed picture plane is an altogether new kind of picture surface,
one that effects ... a radical shift from nature to culture. That is, it is a surface which can
receive a vast heterogeneous array of cultural images and artifacts that had not been
compatible with the pictorial field of either premodernist or modernist painting."(Crimp
p.44) The flatbed is a depository of information, an archaeological sight where one can
wander for meaning. As Walter Benjamin writes: "Thinking involves not only the flow of
thoughts, but their arrest as well."
*

Still life painting is more self referential than the great genres that strove to equal in paint
what the written word did in texts. History painting has literary characteristics. It is
information presented with enough visual cues to read the story being represented. Still
life, on the other hand. leaves plenty of room for the viewer to piece together a non-linear
narrative through an allegorical interpretation. The 'action' takes place in the viewer's
mind. "Theatre, and theatre alone of human activities, provides an opportunity of
experiencing imaginative truth as present truth .. .Imagination and prescience come up
against each other in a way that allows us to test the strengths of each against the claims
of the other"(Karp p.173) In some ways the experience of the museum parallels the
viewing of a still life painting. Both are "self-paced, self-directed, non-linear, and
visually oriented" and can produce what has been referred to as the "aha phenomenon" or
the integration of previously stored items into the immediate experience.

*
By returning to the origins of still life painting and particularly to its distinction from
other contemporary genres, I hope to retrace its significance as representation in order to
erect my art within the archive. Crimp writes on postmodernism: "The fantasy of a
creating subject gives a way to the frank confiscation, quotation, excerptation,
accumulation, and repetition of already existing images. Notions of originality,
authenticity, and presence, essential to the ordered discourse of the museum, are
undermined."(Crimp p.56) My archive includes modernism as well as the museum and
might be viewed as a parody of both.
*
In Faces of Modernity, Matei Calinescu describes: "On the surface, a parody is meant to
castigate, usually by exaggeration, certain hidden defects or incompatibilities in the
original by which it is inspired. On a more profound level, however, the parodist can
secretly admire the work he sets out to ridicule ... Ideally a parody should at the same time
appear to be a parody and offer the possibility of being nearly mistaken for the original
itself'(Calinescu p.141)

 12

*
My interest in the residue of our ways, encoded in what we leave behind, has led me to
the institutions that collect, house, and display historical objects and specimens. A large
part of the museum's function is to decide what is worthy of acquisition and how to
categorize and (re)present it. Through parallel activity, I hope to recognize and
understand the implications of these decisions, and the determinant of broader systems.
*
There have been discussions in museum circles regarding the institution's shift from
temple to museum or from a place where knowledge is revered to one where it is debated.
(Karp) Through the observation of the less visible activities of our institutions and the
almost inaudible whisperings of unimportant things, a broader spectrum of influences can
become visible. In my own set of museological presentations there is no model to follow.
Each grouping is set to a different order; a story, a display, a record, or an ideology.
Some objects are grouped according to kind. Other objects are grouped to highlight
difference. If a collection has a didactic function, then I feel my function is to undermine
and question just that.

*
"Allegory is in the realm of thought what ruins are in the realm of things"
Walter Benjamin
In the Arcades Project, Benjamin presented a materialist conception of history. Through
the careful examination of material remains and the debris of industrial culture, Benjamin
revisited the past to gain an understanding of the present. He was searching the origins of
capitalism for the seeds of fascism. His notion of allegory, based on Baroque drama, is
one of death, decay, ruin, after-image; acting as a metaphor for mortality. The skeletal
arcades and the detritus of consumerism signify the structural defect in the social
conditions that upheld them. The after image lingers dialectically in the present.(BuckMorss)
Rusted objects are as transient as the post industrial progress they represent. They are the
'new nature' described by Susan Buck-Morss as that which has been transformed by
technology and rapid change. The preceding nature, contrastingly, evolves slowly over
millions of years, in a geological time frame. Rust...rocks. The ever-changing aspect of
technology;conveys the illusion of time as progress. This is the myth that Benjamin
sought to dispel. He called the display of the myth of progress 'phantasmagoria'.
Modernism replaced the old ways of thinking, yet capitalism viewed through its material
remains, proved to be equally mythical.
*
Having grown up in Montreal, I recall my early independent shopping excursions to a
record store on a downtown street called 'Phantasmagoria'. I spent my allowance there

 r

13

each week unaware of the social significance of my act. It was an initiation, a right of
passage to the culture of consumerism, a veritable wish-image.
*
Benjamin's dialectical images, the then and now colliding, expose the conflicting forces,
acting as a trigger to our thoughts and action in our minds. What is progress? How are
we to distinguish between the social forces at work in the world and the natural
progression of another order? What shapes form? Is it the laws of nature or the hands of
culture?

*
Archaeologists rely on the concreteness of things. They decipher through observation by
extracting information from the surfaces of surviving objects. It is a speculative science
grounded in the reality of seeing. The artifacts in the Louisbourg archives predate the
industrial revolution. They are part of that earlier nature when things changed slowly.
Yet these objects are familiar, not unlike what we use today. They were discarded,
broken or replaced, dumped in latrines and used as landfill. These everyday objects of
pottery and glass have survived the centuries with few traces. Only their original demise
is evident; broken in shards or blackened by fire. The disparity between the decay of
'new nature' and the preservation of old artifacts is measured in our own residue and in
the relics we find underfoot. Things do not last, they decay by obsoleteness. Make way
for the new and improved; the tactile myth of progress.
*
My investigation has led me to these juxtapositions of things and ideas. A museological
approach lends authority to my project. Rocks and rust, contemporary relics next to
authentic artifacts, Foucault's order, Benjamin's dialectical image. In this work, the
divide between image and lexical charge is the difference between truth and knowledge.
Benjamin set out to test his ideas about the material basis of our culture through the
medium of 19th century Paris. By looking back, he stripped away the layers of time to
unearth the origins of capitalism and the myth of automatic historical progress. As a
painter and collector of things, I am digging for the root of my practice to understand its
transformation and implication. I am also attempting to make visible the shift from
nature to culture, from raw material to (wo)man-made forms and to see what is set and
understand through deconstructing popular assumptions.

 14

excerpts from Pablo Neruda's Ode to Common Things.

Ode to the Spoon
Spoon
scoop
formed
by man's
most ancient hand,
in your design
of metal or of wood
we still see
the shape
of the first
palm
to which
water
imparted coolness
and savage blood,
the throb of bonfires and the hunt.

( ... )

and so the coming
of the new life that,
fighting and singing
we preach
will be a coming of soup bowls,
a perfect panoply of spoons.
an ocean of steam rising from pots in a world
without hunger,
and a total mobilization of spoons,
will shed light where once was darkness
shining on plates like contented flowers.

 '

•

.
Bibliography

Alpers, Svetlana. The Art of Describing. Chicago: University of Chicago Pr~ss, 1983.
Benjamin, Walter. The Origin of German Tragic Drama. London: NLB, 1977.
Bryson, Norman. Looking at the Overlooked. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1990.
Buchloch, Benjamin. Broodthaers: Writings, Interviews, photographs. Cambridge: MIT Press,
1988.
Buchloch, Benjamin. Marcel Broodthaers: Allegories of the Avant Garde. Art Forum v18, May
1980, pp.52-60.
Buck-Morss, Susan. The Dialectics of Seeing. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1989.
Calinescu, Matei. Faces of Modernity. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1977.
Crimp, Douglas. On the Museum's Ruins. Octoberl3,pp.41-571 1980.
Foucault, Michel. The Order of Things. New York: Random House, 1970.
Goldwater, Marge. Marcel Broodthaers. New York: Rizzoli, 1988.
Karp, Ivan and Lavine, StevenD. Exhibiting Cultures. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press,
1991.
Kopper, Philip. The National Museum of Natural History a Smithsonian Museum. New York:
Harry N. Abrams Inc., 1982.
Neruda, Pablo. Odes to Common Things. Boston: Little Brown and company, 1994.
Trigger, Bruce G. A History of Archaeology Thought. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1989.