Sarah Charlesworth’s “Objects of Desire” series feature appropriated imagery sourced from a wide range of publications, such as fashion magazines and archaeological textbooks, and then placed in new contexts to comment on the ways in which contemporary culture markets desires. Charlesworth cut out and rephotographed the images against backgrounds saturated with pure color, often pairing the clippings side by side to further incite a narrative. In Bowl and Column, a modest gold bowl is paired with an iconic Greek column against a lush, ultramarine-colored backdrop. Together, they can be read as symbols for male and female. If so, the fact that Charlesworth presents these two objects on an equal footing would seem to allude to equivalence between the genders.

Label from For the Love of Things: Still Life, February 27–May 29, 2016