24/4/2007
Matthew Smith
Store, London
Things are Thin. For Wittgenstein objects are unchanging, stable things but which hold the possibility of transformation through different configurations: meaning is inherently relative and precarious. Smith's practice is a repeated meditation on the idea of different configurations of the object and the 'state of affairs' that rises from their combination.
Things are Thin
At the start of his book ‘Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus’ Ludwig Wittgenstein, considers the relation between individual objects and the configuration of objects in the world. ‘Typical Affair’ (2006), a work by Matthew Smith that consists of a shelf set at a peculiar angle in relation to an Island record cover, recalls Wittgenstein’s conceptualisation of the world: “A state of affairs (a state of things) is a combination of objects (things).”
For Wittgenstein objects are unchanging, stable things but which hold the possibility of transformation through different configurations: meaning is inherently relative and precarious. Smith’s practice is a repeated meditation on the idea of different configurations of the object and the ‘state of affairs’ that rises from their combination: our associations are unhinged slightly so that objects float momentarily as themselves before we might settle on another set of associations.
Matthew Smith manipulates things that already exist in the world. Nails, duvets, record covers, magazine pages are transformed in order to destabilise their original presence and function. Smith’s manipulation is slight; a duvet is arranged over a support to illicit its sculptural nature, a nail is painted with small loops of candy-floss coloured enamel paint, record covers have their front artworks torn off, magazine covers are meticulously coloured over. Each object becomes a variation of its original self and through shift the precarious hold that exists between object and its original set of meanings or functions is made apparent. The anchoring of objects in their expected context is more provisional than might seem at first. The nail is no longer quite a nail; the duvets are no longer quite duvet covers. As Smith comments, ‘things are thin’.
It is a curiosity that Wittgenstein’s celebrated book published in 1921, famously became a ‘thesis’ momentarily in 1929 when the philosopher belatedly realised he needed something to act as a thesis in order to take up a teaching post at Cambridge. The thesis was ‘examined’ by Bertrand Russell, who had previously written its introduction when it had been a book: “Don’t worry,” said Wittgenstein to Russell somewhat ungenerously at the end of the viva, “I know you’ll never understand it.”
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