The Parliament of Things

14 Mar-31 May 2015

Overview

The Parliament of Things explores the way in which we relate to objects, bringing together works by artists who can be seen to question western philosophical conventions that privilege the human subject over the inanimate object. Taking its title from a proposition by the French philosopher and sociologist Bruno Latour, who advocated a ‘democracy of things’ – breaking down the hierarchy between people (culture) and the world (nature) – the exhibition responds to the recent philosophical shift away from understanding objects as mere projections of the human mind. The exhibition will include sculpture by Pedro Barateiro (b. 1979, PT), Mariana Castillo Deball (b. 1975, MX), Christodoulos Panayiotou (b. 1978, CY) and Lucy Skaer (b. 1975, UK); films by Simon Martin (b. 1965, UK), Melvin Moti (b. 1977, NL) and Paul Sietsema (b. 1968, US); and a new commission by Maria Loboda (b. 1979, DE).