Commodities and Natural Objects

Organic substances can be identified both as the main constituents of an artwork or a cultural heritage object, and as secondary components, mixed with inorganic compounds. Organic materials can be found in the finish or decoration of the surfaces, or as residues of commodities, such as in ceramic or glass vessels. Moreover, the majority of restoration products applied as consolidants, adhesives, restoration paints and varnishes are of an organic nature. 

Commodities come into the world in the shape of use-values, articles or goods, such as iron, linen, com, etc. This is their plain, homely, bodily form. They are, however, commodities, only because they are something two-fold, both objects of utihty, and, at the same time, depositories of value. They manifest themselves therefore as commodities, or have the form of commodities, only in so far as they have two forms, a physical or natural form, and a value-form (51). 

While the virtual nature of dematerialization that we are currently facing was not necessarily anticipated by Lucy Lippard, Germano Celant, and other critics who used the term specifically with regard to the art market some thirty years ago, it seems essential to invoke its current usage for its broad political implications and the ambivalence it suggests in any relation with objects, whether art objects or pure commodities. 

---