Abstraction through the kaleidoscope

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to explore the philosophical concept of abstraction and its educational potential based on a day spent with the Finnish-Norwegian artist Irma Salo Jæger at her studio. The creation of the concept is informed by Deleuze and Guattari’s (1994/2009) philosophy of the concept and new materialist theory-practice (Coole and Frost 2010; Hickey-Moody and Page 2015; Kontturi 2018; Page 2018). Throughout the day, the concept of abstraction grows through stories related to Salo Jæger’s art and artistry and references to art and art history, and the abstract paintings and other artistic materials at her studio guide the creation of the concept. I further analyse the situations and conversations in light of abstraction’s educational potential and the aforementioned theories. I argue that abstraction contains both representa - tional and more-than-representational qualities, which are remoulded and combined anew in the making of and encounters with abstract art. Representation functions as a threshold rather than an impasse. The breaking of representational logic brought about by agential materials and the multiplicity of understandings has educational potential, rejecting tunnel vision and binary thinking. The entanglements between humans and painting matter are pedagogical, eliciting new perspectives and embodied understandings. Playing (Harker 2005) enables the educational potential to unfold. It makes experimenting with and building a complex, kaleidoscopic understanding of the concept of abstraction possible. The article contributes to the discourse about Salo Jæger’s art and artistry and the concept of abstraction. The creation of the concept challenges conventional philosophical understandings of abstraction, where the concept is regarded as a universal dimension of ideal forms and ideas.