Objects play an important role in contemporary art. Since Duchamp’s readymades, we have seen objects on display, separated from their daily use. Many of the installations in The Valley of Walls consist of a reconstruction of objects. None of those objects changed in shape, color or size. But the artists added something new to our perceptions with these new installations. What then are we left with? For Graham Harman, one of the founding members of Object Oriented Ontology, there is more to an object outside our practical encounter with it. How might we consider the role of the artist in this context? What about other contemporary art trends, like archival-based art, and their relationship to objects? In discussion with Professor Harman, we would like to explore how objects invite new questions about art, artists and audiences.

 
Graham Harman is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the Southern California Institute of Architecture. Harman is a founding member of the Speculative Realism and Object-Oriented Ontology movements. His main interest lies in the metaphysics of objects, which he has explored in various books. Most recently, his Art + Objects brought art in closer conversation to speculative realism.