Parts

Parts is a solo exhibition by Ben Cain.

"Hence, the worker only feels himself when he is not working, when he is working he does not feel himself. He is at home when he is not working, and not at home when he is working."
Karl Marx. Manuscripts, 1844.

"The crux of his vision lies, once again, in the logic of a new alliance that goes beyond the great division between persons and things. Intelligent machines, works of art, computers, and all other types of artifacts usher us into a dimension that cuts across their supposed division: ‘Compared to devices of this type, the fundamental conceptual division… between soul and thing, spirit and matter, subject and object, freedom and mechanism, will no longer gain any traction’ (Peter Sloterdijk)."
Roberto Esposito. Persons and Things, 2015.

Parts
A studio might look something like this. Parts in process, some parts more complete than others, some more closely interrelated than others, some repeating familiar patterns and others digressing or attempting something new. Some things in pre-stages, some things on the way to becoming material, solidifying, and others enjoying the state of being perpetually pre-material. Some things suggesting actions, some things anticipating actions, some things recording actions, some things almost acting, some acting badly, some obviously acting, and some pretending to act.

The body is a work tool. The body is a pleasure instrument. The body is the object or site which measures the power exercised by some over others.1 An object of domination. The Body is apparently an other-thing to be modeled, honed, shaped, trained, controlled, monitored, regulated, optimized, made work-ready, performance-improved. Peter Sloterdijk has recently said that our time is an era of Exercise, whereas the last century was a time of Production. If Production has clear outcomes, products, Exercise is perhaps not so much about ‘making’ but rather about sharpening the tools of production, and preparing the ground? Exercise is training and practicing, and is a process of optimizing. In the era of Exercise it’s the machine, the apparatus that’s optimized, rather than the product? That is unless we think of the body as the outcome, or product.

In the absence of physical labour we have ‘exercise’. Quasi-professional exercise culture is omnipresent. Think of ‘technical’, ‘professional’ or ‘intelligent’ sports wear becoming an increasingly familiar part of daily dress, and advert space being saturated with Nike slogans that are success-driven and mercilessly goal-orientated. If the outer layer is technical we might assume that the thing which it’s covering is also some sort of ‘technical object’, in addition or as opposed to that same thing being a sensing and sensual instrument, or device. I wonder if the body’s move towards the ‘technical object’ is synonymous with a becoming inanimate, or becoming a thing? Exercise time can be found anywhere anytime, just like contemporary work-time. ‘Exercise’ manages to convolute labour and leisure towards realizing the perfectly honed physical body as a highly productive machine that’s fit for working hard and ‘playing hard’. Pushing your body to the edge, taking it to the brink, hitting the wall, to the point when the body starts to fail, bits start to fall off, and the social animal aspect of the body, or of people, starts to dwindle while the pursuit of ‘personal bests’ wins out.

Here things are not necessarily either animate or inanimate, but rather amalgamations, appearances and propositions. While in some cases a body might be present physically, in others it rather exists as an idea, an allusion.

1. Persons and Things by Roberto Esposito, pub. 2015 Polity Press

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