Prima Materia: The Periodic Table in Contemporary Art, Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, USA, 2023
Prima Materia: The Periodic Table in Contemporary Art, Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, USA, 2023
All art forms, even music and literature, are partially dependent on the material world. The visual arts, however, are more linked with materialism, as the field is primarily defined by objects, which are made of physical matter. Even digital media is contingent on matter, whether it is the silicon that makes a microprocessor, or the lithium that comprises the battery in a cell phone. For thousands of years humans have speculated on what the world is made of. “Prima materia” was a concept first put forth by Aristotle to describe the primitive, formless base for all matter. Later, Plato in his treatise Timaeus, wrote “The body of the world is composed of four elementary constituents, earth, air, fire, and water, the whole available amount of which is used up in its composition.” The alchemists of both medieval Europe and those of the Islamic Middle East and North Africa were the first who began to doubt the primacy of the ancient four elements and their speculation led to the transition from alchemy to chemistry that began in the Renaissance. The names given to the eras in human history–stone, bronze, iron, and now silicon, are indicative of how our understanding of matter has transformed culture.
