(Im)Materiality: on the matter of art

Abstract

Since art became self-consciously art, roughly in modern times, it has mattered literally in different modes and has come to ‘matter’ figuratively on divergent levels. In what follows, the ways in which art has come to matter physically are first explored in an attempt to uncover the heart of the matter, so to speak. After that the more theoretical analysis of why art ‘matters’ – why it has significance and what its significance may be – is examined. But firstly, and perhaps most obviously, art matters in its own materiality. In other words, it matters through the ‘stuff’ that it is made of or created from such as the bronze sculpture, the oil painting or the woven basket: through its materiality the art object exists physically in the world. I apply these arguments in this article to a discussion of artworks exhibited at the Visuality/Commentary exhibition organised in May 2008 by the Department of Visual Arts at the University of Pretoria as part of the centenary celebrations.