Inventory

Our memories of objects reverberate between real and represented matter. In Inventory Andreasen and Melzer investigate the relationship between actual and drawn things. They collected and inventoried things surrounding them: in the kitchen, on the workdesk, in the bathroom, in drawers and cupboards. Inventory consists of twelve works that this publication tries to unite. Additional contributions allude to signs and symbols, metaphors and language, and the interrelation between words and things. The set of artists’ books Thing Chose Ding Cosa is the core work in Inventory. The books are a treasury of everyday objects, like albums that index the physical presence of things. One by one, each item —a hammer, a cup, a pencil, a paper clip, a cable, a whisk, etc.—was placed on a page and its outline drawn with a marker. How does circumscribing a three-dimensional object relate to procedures of mapping and naming? This way of drawing is a mode of tracing; these outlines are on the edge of abstract lines and language. The compilation of these drawings as an inventory of outlines charts a nonverbal vocabulary of signs—figures that induce the viewer to recall the form, usage and function of the objects via tactile and visual memories. ‘We are intrigued by the tension between an ideal concept, the way we name things, and their materiality and history. This publication reflects us as users in the ‘company of objects’ (Stokhof): the value of things as a childlike ode to their presence.’ Inventory is a work by Kasper Andreasen & Tine Melzer. Essays: ‘Between Word and Thing’ by Ilse van Rijn, ‘The Company of Objects’ by Martin Stokhof.

Contribution: Louis Lüthi. Translation: Lynn George. Design: Louis Lüthi. Printing: Veenman drukkers.