About

Object Abuse is a curatorial agency and a speculative platform for discussion.

Founded by TC McCormack and Martin Gent, OA’s first manifestation was a symposium titled: Object Abuse: Who’s looking at Who? that took place on the 23rd April 2012 at Centre for Creative Collaboration, London. This event was organized in response to a series of art works and research entitled; Dumb Fixity* made in collaboration by McCormack and Gent.

OA’s intension is to provide a platform for people to discuss, provoke and question the very nature and orientation of objects. The aim is to readdress the unquestioned drives of our collective pursuits, to turn the tables on the object-subject dynamic.

This agency’s function is to invite a multidisciplinary discussion, to act as a forum, a curatorial framework and an archival space. OA welcomes expressions of interest and contributions to the ongoing debate.

 

People

TC McCormack – Director and curatorial coordinator

Martin J Gent – Director and curatorial coordinator

Rebecca Stewart – Assistant editor

Andy Welland – Designer

Craig Richardson – Designer & Developer

 

McCormack and Gent have collaborated over the past decade. TC McCormack is a visual artist and a senior lecturer in Fine Art. Martin J Gent is an artist and a director of Spinach, a qualitative research agency.

This site has been created with the support of the Art and Design Research Centre (ADRC), Sheffield Hallam University.

 

Links
www.tcmccormack.co.uk
www.spinach.co.uk
SHU Research: TC Mccormack
www.transmission.uk.com
www.artwords.co.uk
www.ephemeralforever.com
www.combinestudio.com
www.instituteofmaking.org.uk
www.crazycoffins.co.uk

 

*Dumb Fixity is primarily a visual artwork and an archive; it has acquired a particular methodology of orientation, for establishing the true location of an object within a ‘field of meaning’. This form of address is quantative, it offers a means to map a non-subjective actuality (fixity), an associative and relative system of significance that challenges conventional interpretations of objects.

 

 

 

 

 

Object abuse asks the question:
who or what is being abused?

Object Abuse has been set up to provide a platform for people to discuss, provoke and question the very nature and orientation of objects. The aim is to readdress the unquestioned drives of our collective pursuits, to turn the tables on the object-subject dynamic.

This investigation’s relevance is reflected in recent developments in philosophy, shifts in our socio-cultural landscape and is finding expression in the visual arts. This questioning of our human-centric perspective is reflected through current ideas found in the works of Bruno Latour, Graham Harman, Quentin Meillassoux, Anselm Franke and others.

The question: what exactly is object abuse is by no means obvious, when you think about it, who is to say the object in question is passive and not active? Also it is worth asking where does the form of abuse originate from? What qualifies abuse, is it quantifiable, can we identify subtler variations? And for that matter; what is an object, or rather can we say what is not an object…with any real certainty?

OA‘s function is to invite a multidisciplinary engagement; to be a forum, a curatorial framework and an archival space.

We welcome expressions of interest and contributions to the ongoing debate.