Abstract
George Kubler, an archeologist, wrote in his book The Shape of Time: remarks on the history of things that "Let us suppose that the idea of art can be expanded to embrace the whole range of man-made things, including all tools and writing in addition to the useless, beautiful, and poetic things of the world. The book had great influence on artists of those days. Man-made things are related each other to form a continuum beyond the area we perceive as their meanings and functions. As long as there are innumerable networks connecting these things, their influence, once created, does not fade out, even if their meanings and functions deteriorate gradually. The continuum also can not be divided at any point by the concept of level. There is an understanding that "assemblage" is a unique type of art objects created by a system, called art museum. The reason is that the characteristic of this method merging all kinds of things regardless of their origins is intrinsic in art museums. Certainly, it appears to be similar to the Kubler's image of an art museum. An ideal museum should collect everything men have made. Kubler, however, was well aware that such a museum is nothing but an abstract concept, which can be, realized only if human view is excluded. As long as humans are actually concerned with, a museum can neither collect nor exhibit everything. What we can see in a museum is only a group of objects selected from numberless things. Kubler thinks. Although only a series of objects selected from a virtually infinite number of possibilities are sanctified in art museums, nothing is generated there. A new object can be generated (or invented) only if a network connecting potential or hidden objects is come to the front Kubler was more interested in a host of objects stored in museum warehouses than museum exhibitions. He
also showed interest in objects buried underground.
(Reproduced from Newsletter of Japan Art Documentation Society, No.37, April 25, 1998, first appeared in his
article, "‹Art› Other art museum: the Memorial Exhibition of Rauschenberg", Ronza, Jan., 1998)
