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Identity Isn’t a Predefined Object
Non-objects in art and life
An object, Ferreira Gullar said in “Dialogue of the Non-object” in 1960, is “a material thing we find at hand, naturally, linked to everyday designations and uses: a rubber, a pencil, a pear, a shoe, etc.”
Those “references of use and meaning” make up entirely what the object is. There’s nothing more to say about the object besides what we are supposed to do with it or think about it.
By contrast, a “non-object…does not belong to the realm of use or verbal designation,” and though you may suggest designating possible purposes, your suggestions won’t define that thing as long as it remains a non-object. Purposes roll off it like rain off a duck’s back.
Gullar had previously written an essay “Theory of the Non-object” (December 1959) which can be found in his book Experiência neo concreta: limite da arte. The Peruvian Mexican critic Juan Acha developed the name no-objetualismo about 1973 for an avoidance of the “purity and elitism of the art object.”
Esther Gabara talks about this in the introduction to her 2022 book Non-literary Fiction: Art of the Americas under Neoliberalism.
Once you recognize the purpose of a pencil, its physical form is somehow not quite at issue. You’ll use it to write. If it’s…
