No Ethics Without Things

Abstract

Just as recognition and pursuit of the human good take place in language andaction, so too do they unfold in encounter with the material and visual. Theethical crises, projects, and striving we see in everyday religious life areworked out not just in the intersubjective play and politics of language butalso in encounter with, in dwelling with, material and visual substances andforms. This essay considers the material conditions that make possible the“ethical pleasures” sought by Indonesian painter A. D. Pirous in making anddisplaying contemporary works of "Islamic art," most especially works thatmake "visual recitation" of passages from the Qur'an. Show more