What matters? Returning to perplexity with spurse at the Indianapolis Museum of Art

• Main Author: Rebecca Uchill
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Department of Art History, University of Birmingham 2019-12-01
• Series: Journal of Art Historiography
• Subjects: spurse; bruno latour; perplexity; institutional critique; exhibition display; indianapolis museum of art; newfields; art and science; charles w. haxthausen
• Online Access: https://arthistoriography.files.wordpress.com/2019/11/uchill.pdf

In honour of Charles W. Haxthausen with an offering on the museum side of his ‘two art histories’, this paper reflects on the exhibition sub-merging: a wetland project by the art collective spurse, which I organized in 2006 at the Indianapolis Museum of Art. Using a series of conceptual protocols drawn from theories of knowledge production from Bruno Latour and others, the artists looked at processes of decision-making that consecrate ‘What Matters’ to the museum (and which material ‘matters’ become sanctioned for recognition within it). The project forced awareness of and discussions about representation, access, and valuation. Our process of producing the exhibition, described in this article, also explored the rich conceptual potential of incongruities in departmental policies or disciplinary methods within the organization. Ultimately, this project explored the reality that a museum – like any commons – is not just one institution or thing, but a multitude of propositions.