Meaning in Matter: from Bronze to Paper

Jodie Carey's 'The Daily Mail - Arrangement One' makes a nice link between the two shows

Thinking about the importance of materials and materiality is a popular theme at the moment. In May I wrote about the conference on Ephemerality and Durability that I attended in Cambridge where we talked about boxes. We also discussed the importance of matter and materials, from paper instruments, to Japanese lacquer to leather shoes: how we need to understand the ways in which people thought about materials in the past and what this tells us about the objects they created. This is something which has long featured in permanent galleries at the V&A, with beautiful new displays appearing on the production of ceramics or furniture, for instance. But, it has been much less common in major exhibitions, materials and production being seen as a less exciting topic I suspect. I've therefore been interested in two very different recent shows themed around material.

Last year, the Royal Academy staged a popular and well-received show on Bronze, in which the curators used the beautiful and varied properties of this material to consider objects made from it. There was a strong emphasis on production techniques, with a whole fascinating room demonstrating the different stages of casting and hammering, using both models and films. The interpretation emphasised how the qualities of the material led to the different ways in which the objects were constructed and valued. The exhibits ranged from monumental sculptures to door knockers, arranged thematically by broad types. There were some real prize objects from Louise Bourgeois' spider to a 4th-century Thracian portrait head. I didn't feel that the structure of the show was entirely successful, however. Particularly the rooms called 'Objects I' and 'Objects II' essentially became 'miscellaneous', losing the argument that the bronze material united objects in function and purpose. It was a departure for the RA, however, to focus so strongly away from aesthetic concerns.

The current Saatchi gallery exhibition Paper is a complete contrast. Other than the title almost no attempt is made to discuss the material theme of the show, with the varied contemporary artworks left to speak for themselves. There are some beautiful pieces and some strong themes that emerge. Works by Christian Holstad, Miler Lagos, Tom Thayer and Jessica Jackson Hutchins use newspapers, making points about textual production and fragility. Yuken Teruya's extraordinary trees crafted out of paper shopping bags highlight mass production and consumption, alongside Paul Westcombe's decorated coffee cups. Peles Empire's close-up photographs of shimmering armour, printed on paper, make nice play with the different qualities of the image and the material. Rachel Adams' paper statues begin to think about what we expect from paper surface, especially if thought about with Klaus Mosettig's intricate representations of the effect of scratched projector lenses copied onto white paper. Yet, many works included seem merely to be 2D works on paper, one is even acrylic and ink on panel (no paper to be seen!). I am not sure what these works tell us with no interpretation or connections between objects. What is it that the paper theme is doing for the Saatchi curators?

So while the Saatchi Paper leaves the works too open for me, the RA Bronze seemed to close it down. I am left wondering what the best means is to think about materiality and art. In the basement of the Saatchi, Richard Wilson's 20:50 is also on display, a shimmering tank of used sump oil, quietly filling the room. It is eminently powerful, beautiful in the sheer power of the material. It seems to combine the best of Bronze and Paper to show that matter really does, well, matter.