PACKED LIKE SARDINES: THINKING ABOUT “EVERYTHING” IN CONTEMPORARY ART

This interdisciplinary conversation hopes to investigate the role and meaning of “everything” in art. Ambitious in scope, but specific in concept, this roundtable will consider ideas of materiality and fullness, from assemblage to aggregate art, from attempts to collect “everything” to the desire to know “everything.” Looking back to historical precursors such as Arman, Douglas Huebler, and Andy Warhol, and forward to artists such as Song Dong, Camille Henrot, and Claire Fontaine, what questions regarding the impulse to hold on to “everything” recur? What roles do ecology, hoarding, theories of plentitude, and ideas of capacity continue to play?