Asilentspeechthatthingsaddresstouseverydayinanartisticlanguage isinfinitelymoreconvincingthandozensoflecturesaboutaestheticeducation,goodtaste,etc.Tomakethislanguageofthingscontemporaryand expressiveistheexcitingbutdifficulttaskofanartist.' 1 Thiswashowthe SovietartcriticNinaIaglovaopenedherarticleinthejournalDecorative Art of the USSR in June 1961. Here, 'things' (veshchi, material objects) appearasactiveparticipantsinpeople'slives,asagentsbyvirtueofbeing speakers. However, their 'speech' is possible only through the power of humanagents-artists.Artinfiltratesintoeverydaylifethroughobjects; objectsaffecteverydaylifethrough'speech'composedbyartists;artists educatesocietyinaestheticsthroughobjects.The interplay between art and the quotidian, between people and objects, described by Iaglova, has also informed recent developments in the humanities and social sciences. The 'material-cultural turn' that emerged in the mid-1980s in archaeology and anthropology converged with critiques in other social sciences and humanities disciplines in the followingdecade. 2 Inthelate1990s-2000s,thisresultedinaflowofnew theoreticalstreamsthatshiftedscholars'focusfromdiscoursetomaterialityandfromhumantonon-humanagents(describedthrough'bio-,eco-, geo-,neuro-,necro-,zoo-concepts',ashistorianEwaDomanskasummarises). 3 Actor-networktheory,newmaterialism,object-orientedontology, material feminisms, thing theory and other branches of critical theory offerdifferentreconsiderationsofthesocialandpoliticalroleofobjects.A growingbodyofscholarshipinanthropology,