When it was first exhibited at The MAC, Belfast in 2016, this work was framed by the proposition: “What if this is the last thing, the final material to be pulled out of the ground, the final piece of stuff that has not already been purposed by humans?” The ‘thing’ referred to here is the multi-faceted marble object at the centre of the work, around which a constellation of other objects are arranged. Enlisted to draw our attention to and act in service of the marble form, these ‘secondary’ objects (spotlight, photographic backdrop, Perspex plinths and other items) dominate the space physically in their excessive framing of the ‘thing’.
The geometric form of this marble object is inspired by the mysterious three-dimensional shape known as ‘Dürer’s solid’ that appears in Albrecht Dürer’s 1514 engraving, Melencolia, and has been the subject of much scholarly analysis and speculation about its meaning. Knezevic’s artworks describe the peculiar human relationship to the things around us, particularly to art-objects, and hint at the essential unknowability of matter.