Certain objects are recognizable on the archetypal level. These objects slip easily between contexts and ontologies. In other words, a window is a window in many ways to many people. A window is a free agent, easily adapting conceptually depending on the vantage point. An archetypal object is not so basic that it has no meaning; rather, it is a lightning rod for meaning. Its simplicity leaves a void that is filled with signification very quickly, because nature abhors a vacuum.

In 1965, Donald Judd wrote an essay called “Specific Objects,” which attempted to take stock of the rapidly changing world of postmodern sculpture. At the time, it was a radical idea that art no longer had to reference anything outside of itself. Interestingly, he drew a distinction between “sculpture” and “three-dimensional art,” saying that a bronze cast from a wax model, for instance, is a sculpture, but a fluorescent…