Maria
Jones
Academic Advisor Laurel
Sparks
1 March 2013
The
Object
Objects
we find in every day life become a part of who we are and what we remember,
whether a collection, an item, or a trace. People relate to objects as a means
of preservation, sentiment, and historical reference. The objects that we
relate to become what the archivist call traces. Traces are a mark, object or
other indication of the existence or passing of some thing, and from this point
forward I will distinguish the trace as objects. The objects that interest me
include feminine stereotyped crafts, such as: knitting, weaving, quilting, etc.
As a woman and retired United States Naval Officer, the objects that I hold
dear are directly affected by my experiences in the military and my gender role
in society. Objects become incremental in cultural preservation, and play a
part in what Freud called the death drive. The death drive is a destructive
force that does not leave behind objects of its own, and is a direct antagonist
to human nature’s drive to accumulate and remember. I have a small obsession
with human nature’s overwhelming desire to overcome this death drive through
the collection of objects. My artistic interest in the object is influenced by
our current culture based on the trace, archive, and the incessant need to
preserve past events, moments, processes, and people to the most insignificant
details. I have an interest in the accumulation of insignificant objects over
time that provides memories and meaning but eventually overwhelms the space
around us. The Archive by Charles
Merewether[1]
and The Big Archive by Sven Spieker
discuss the object, or trace, to create a record perceived through art with
emphasis on the historical relevance of Sigmund Freud’s writings. Each book
touches on the discussion of the trace, and changes in art and culture through
the archival process.
Charles
Merewether’s book begins with a section dedicated to the trace. Within this
section are essays from artists like Susan Hiller who are creating in a method
similar to collectors by working through objects to find the cultural meaning
or traces much like Freud (Merewether 20). Freud felt humans functioned based
on what he called drives, basic motivating forces and evolutionary functions.
Through the object, a drive can achieve its aim, which in the case of archives
is preservation of life and historical events (Carel). The object in the form
of the archive becomes the trace, a way of remembering such as writing. Through
the object a memory is created. Unfortunately, more memories require more
objects, which results in excessive accumulation of what some would consider
insignificant objects. Merewether and Spieker address this accumulation through
the discussion of Freud’s article, “A Note Upon The Mystic Writing-Pad.” Freud
developed a method of producing multiple traces on a singular object that would
eventually become useless and illegible, the Mystic Pad:
The
Mystic Pad is a slab of dark brown resin or wax with a paper edge; over the slab
is laid a thin transparent sheet…one writes upon the celluloid portion of the covering-sheet…the
permanent trace of what was written is retained upon the wax slab itself…(Merewether
21-22)
Freud’s Mystic Pad was meant
as a function of our passing away of unconsciousness thoughts (Merewether 24).
The layer of paper acts as the conscious mind and the celluloid acts as the
protection of the memory layer, or wax below. Spieker believes the stacking of
traces on the waxen surface of the pad suggested the timelessness of the
unconscious mind and therefore was a resistance to archivization of the time
(Spieker 43). Merewether, however, outlines the influence of Freud’s
writing-pad on the archival nature of our culture through an artistic study of
Susan Hiller.
Susan
Hiller creates art that studies the intellectual, emotional, and
ideological processes in which objects are comprehended and classified
(Withers). From 1972 to 1976 Hiller
created Dedicated to the Unknown Artists,
(Figure 1) a work consisting of 300 numbered and indexed postcards of British
seaside resorts.
Fig. 1 Dedicated to the Unknown Artists, 1972-1976. Timothy Taylor Gallery, London
Spieker comments on the fact
that Hiller utilizes fleeting encounters and missed moments in her artistic
photographic archive. He feels her ideas of the sublime, although directly
influenced by historical research on the archive, are mechanical due to the
technological nature of the medium and era in which she works (Spieker 141).
Hiller went on to create From the Freud
Museum between 1991-1997, (Figure 2) which dealt with the idea of
collecting and how the collected objects and art of collecting constantly
evokes mortality and death (Withers).
Fig. 2 From The Freud Museum, 1991-1997. TATE
Her focus around art directly
discusses an accumulation of objects as a way of providing meaning in life.
Through this process she echo’s history and our current cultural obsession with
remembering every detail.
Sven
Spieker’s book is more focused on the historical impact of the archival process
during certain periods in society. He believes Freud’s main contribution to
history includes an archive of invisible forces present in the object or trace
through the archive of his life’s work files (37). Spieker’s overall approach
to Freud includes how he compared his work to an archaeologist by means of
finding and classifying objects, or memories in Freud’s case, which Spieker
translates into a metaphor for the archive. Like Merewether, Spieker believes
Freud’s “A Note Upon the Mystic Writing-Pad” was a reaction to the accumulation
crisis due to archiving objects that began in the early 1920’s. Spieker states
the note itself was an archive of the psyche (41). As stated before, Freud’s
writing-pad apparatus threatened the very nature of the archive through his theory
of the death drive:
Derrida
claims this drive has an “anarchivic” force because it does not leave traces
of its own…the death drive destroys not simply memory…it destroys the exteriority
of the archive to what it stores (43-44).
Spieker agrees with Derrida’s
claims, stating objects cannot be an archive without chronology or evidence of
place and provenance. He further asserts that Freud’s methods created objects
or traces, which can only have meaning if they can be reconstructed whole, with
place and operation, through the process of the archive.
Freud’s
influence on the history of the archive is far-reaching, but the history
surrounding the archive is much more extensive. Susan Hiller has dedicated her
artistic work to commenting on the archive in interesting ways. She grapples
with the concept of the object and the moments lost or memories held within.
There are many other artists though, like Renee Green, Walid Raad, Andy Warhol,
and Gerhard Richter who work with the archive as a comment on the overwhelming
mass and insignificance of the object or trace.
Through
the study of the history of the archive I have recognized that my art is
influenced by current cultural idealizations of the archive, the obsession with
the object or trace, and the history that precedes it. My experience in the
Navy has led me to travel a great deal, and because of this I find myself
frequently sorting through my insignificant collections for disposal. I do,
however, cling to my small collection of military objects to include ribbons,
medals, plaques, certificates, shoeshine kits and old notes. I am fascinated by
my inability to let go of such insignificant objects, and I have found my
military friends have the same habit. It is important for me to have something
to hold onto from that past, it helps me remember where I came from, and why I
have become the person I am today. I would like my own work to embrace the
memory behind these mass-produced insignificant objects in compelling new ways.
Through the use of feminine stereotyped crafts, like weaving, quilting, baking,
etc., within a historically patriarchal organization my art develops the memory
of the object into a comment on the changing nature of our current culture. I
would like my art to elicit an emotional response of nostalgia, as well as a
sense of the identity or trace attached to the objects. My use of the object or
trace to detail the memory of women that have served in the military in the
manner of a collection or archive is not only homage to contemporary culture, a
gesture to fellow service members, and an acknowledgement of the affect the
military has on my life, but also a nod to historical figures like Sigmund
Freud. The archive is an important process and cultural development that
affects the memory and significance objects hold. Human nature’s desire to
continue living past death through mundane objects is a continuous theme
throughout history. The objects of our past demand our attention; whether or
not they deserve it is a discussion for another day.
Works Cited
Carel,
Havi. Life and Death in Freud and
Heidegger. New York, NY: Editions Rodopi. 2006.
238.
Print.
Merewether,
Charles. The Archive. London,
England: Whitechapel Gallery. 2006. 207. Print.
Spieker,
Sven. The Big Archive: Art from Bureaucracy.
Cambridge: MA: The MIT Press. 2008.
219.
Print.
Rolnik,
Suely. “Archive Mania.” dOCUMENTA (13):
100 Notes – 100 Thoughts. 2011. 5-19.
Print.
Withers,
Rachel. “Speaking Volumes: Rachel Withers on the Art of Susan Hiller.” Artforum
International Nov. 2004: 182-187. Print.
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