ABSTRACT
It is a familiar fact in contemporary sculpture that the objects and materials of which the work is constructed may contribute to the range of meanings appropriate to it: the facts that Willie Cole’s sculpture Shine (2007) is made of shoes and that Kara Walker’s monumental A Subtlety (2014) was made of sugar and molasses are frequently appealed to in critical appreciations of these works. However, there has been little philosophical discussion of this topic.
I develop an analysis of inclusion content, which is content a sculptural work possesses by virtue of the specific materials or objects it includes. The material itself is part of the work’s content—the work quite literally contains it—and it also contributes to the work’s visual content, or appearance, by supplying such elements as color, texture, and shape. Materials also contribute to the work’s meanings in ways that go beyond contributing aspects of appearance.
I discuss works that incorporate nonstandard raw materials, works that incorporate whole objects, and works that treat whole objects rather as though they were raw material. I argue that for representational works, inclusion content may affect what is represented, how it is represented, and the broader themes and meanings we are to attribute to the work.
Notions of literal and metaphorical exemplification, in the sense discussed by Nelson Goodman and Catherine Elgin, are helpful in analyzing how inclusion content contributes to the work’s meaning. Because exemplification is a matter of salience, the artist can promote inclusion content through titling, description of the artwork medium, and auxiliary statements. However, artists’ ability to cancel out unwanted implications of their materials is limited: where resonances and associations are salient to the viewer, they cannot be eliminated by artistic fiat.
Inclusion content is not produced through appearances alone: simulacra function differently than works that really include the materials they appear to include. This is due in part to the fact that inclusion content affects the possibilities the work offers to us, leading us to have bodily experiences and imaginings that contribute to interpretation.
