Nadelie Ng 


When we look at an artwork, it is easy to focus on what we see: its colours, composition, subject, or overall appearance. But beneath the surface, another story is often being told through the materials themselves. This relationship between material and meaning is central to **materiality in art**, where the physical qualities of an artwork can become part of how we understand it.

A painting made with oil behaves differently from one made with charcoal. A sculpture made from bronze carries a different physical and cultural history from one made from discarded plastic. Even familiar materials such as fabric, wood, paper, or clay can take on new meanings depending on how an artist uses them.

For many artists, materials are not simply tools for making an artwork. They are part of the artwork's language.

#### Materials Can Carry Meaning

Materials come with associations.

Wood might bring ideas of nature, craft, architecture, or tradition. Metal can suggest industry, strength, machinery, or permanence. Fabric can reference clothing, domestic life, labour, identity, or cultural traditions.

Artists can use these associations intentionally, but they can also challenge them.

Consider an artist who uses a material associated with luxury and places it alongside something ordinary or discarded. The contrast can immediately create questions about value, consumption, or class.

In this way, the material itself becomes part of what the artwork is communicating.

#### The Process Can Become Part of the Work

Materials also reveal something about how an artwork was made.

Brushstrokes, fingerprints, scratches, seams, cracks, and visible joins can all provide evidence of the artist's process. Rather than hiding the process, some artists make it central to the experience of the work.

A roughly carved surface can communicate physical effort. Layers of paint can reveal time and repetition. Hand-stitched fabric can make the hours of labour behind an object visible.

These processes are also examples of how **art techniques** can contribute to an artwork's meaning, revealing the physical actions and decisions behind the finished piece.

This can create a different relationship between the viewer and the artwork. Instead of only seeing the finished object, we become aware of the actions and decisions that produced it.

#### Materials Can Connect Art to Memory and Place

Some materials carry personal or cultural histories.

An artist might incorporate family photographs, old clothing, letters, found objects, traditional textiles, or materials collected from a particular location. These objects can hold memories that extend beyond their physical form.

A piece of fabric, for example, might appear ordinary to one viewer but carry deep personal significance from the family member who inherited it.

Similarly, materials connected to a specific place can give an artwork a sense of geography and history. Soil, stone, local craft materials, industrial waste, or objects found in a neighbourhood can connect an artwork to the environment in which it was created.

#### The Material Can Change How We Experience an Artwork

Art is not always experienced through sight alone.

Texture can make us imagine how something would feel. Weight can influence how we perceive a sculpture. Fragile materials can create a sense of vulnerability, while heavy or industrial materials can make an artwork feel imposing.

This physical response can influence our emotional reaction.

A work covered in soft fabric may feel intimate or inviting, while the same form made from concrete could feel distant or monumental.

The material changes not only what the artwork looks like, but how we encounter it. This is particularly relevant in **contemporary art**, where artists often experiment with unexpected materials and ways of making.

#### Artists Can Give Ordinary Materials New Lives

One of the most interesting possibilities of material based art is transformation.

Artists often take materials that already have an established purpose and place them in a completely different context. Everyday objects, packaging, discarded furniture, household materials, or industrial waste can become part of an artwork.

This transformation can make us reconsider the object's original value.

Something that was previously considered disposable can become carefully presented, preserved, or even highly valued. The contrast can raise questions about consumption, waste, labour, and what society chooses to consider valuable.

#### Material Choices Can Reflect an Artist's Values

The decision to use a particular material can also reveal something about an artist's approach to making.

An artist working with recycled materials may be responding to environmental concerns. Someone who chooses traditional techniques may be interested in preserving or reinterpreting a cultural practice. Another artist may deliberately use inexpensive or accessible materials as a way of questioning conventional ideas about what art should be made from.

These choices do not need to be political or conceptual. Sometimes an artist simply chooses a material because of the way it behaves.

The important point is that materials can communicate something about the artist's way of thinking.

#### Look Beyond What the Artwork Represents

The next time you encounter an artwork, try looking beyond its subject.

Ask yourself:

**What is this artwork made from, and why might that matter?**

Look at its texture, weight, surface, construction, imperfections, and signs of labour. Consider where the material comes from and what associations it already carries.

You may discover that the material is telling a story before you even understand the image.

An artwork's meaning does not exist only in what it depicts. Sometimes, it is embedded in the very substance of the work.

**Explore contemporary artworks featuring unique materials and techniques on Cohart.**

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Art Materials & Storytelling: How Materials Tell Part of an Artwork's Story

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