Conference Day 3 – AM
Conserving contemporary artworks that may challenge the very notion of art and its materiality, has seen the practice and profession of conservation expand to webs of relationships and infrastructures that have direct impact on the Planet. This conference asks questions about the sustainability of those practices and networks of care. SUSTAINING ART sees conservators, artists, curators, technicians, collectors, researchers and more, coming together to challenge assumptions, examine practices, and imagine equitable futures. Through experience pieces, research talks, panel discussions, workshops, and short films the sustainability of people, practices, and the planet will be pursued in relation to the conservation of contemporary art.
Maria Laura Petruzzellis, Tamar Hestrin-Grader, Annelena de Groot, Gadis (Adis)
Fitriana Putri and Glennis Rayermann
Prepare to be unprepared! A journey across the global heritage science ecosystem
In September 2021, the Netherlands Institute for Conservation +Art+Science+ (NICAS) launched an ambitious international research project, made possible by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, to create “A Global Infrastructure for Heritage Science.” During the initial phase, six Research Associates are mapping the field adopting a broad and inclusive definition of heritage science and approaching “global” as an ensemble of local realities that need to be described and understood. Special attention is dedicated to the broad context of Contemporary Art within the project’s umbrella topics: access to knowledge and facilities; education, training and embodied knowledge; multiple approaches and ethics; power dynamics; and existing networks and infrastructures.
The final goal of the project aims to implement possible ways to move forward a global infrastructure, supporting durable changes, and build up the international care community, able to lift obstacles and to move one step toward a more plural ecosystem that cares not only about objects but also about people, places, cultures and times. Based on the belief that people, ideas and cooperation are the foundations for a global infrastructure, we apply grounded theory and oral history techniques to gather qualitative data through conversations and interviews. We will present a progress report of the first phase of this ongoing project—the challenges we identified, the voices we have heard from the field, and our developing ideas for how we can co-create a resilient infrastructure that links strategies in the exchange of ideas, resources and practices to sustain art and care.
Group bio
Maria Laura Petruzzellis is a conservator of Modern and Contemporary Art, formerly the Peggy Guggenheim Fellow for the NANORESTART Project, and is now a PhD candidate in Fine and Performing Arts.
Tamar Hestrin-Grader has a multidisciplinary background in historical performance practice, musicology, and art history. Marie-Noëlle Grison is an art historian, curator of prints and drawings, printmaker, and PhD student in Art History.
Annelena de Groot has a BA in art history and an MS focusing on conservation of textiles and technical research; she is always looking to connect disciplines.
Gadis (Adis) Fitriana Putri is an emerging conservator of paintings and educator with an MA of cultural materials conservation.
Glennis Rayermann is a conservation scientist with a PhD in chemistry, and Visiting Assistant Professor of Conservation Science at New York University.
Clara Von Waldthausen
SBMK Project Photography: Bridging knowledge gaps in Dutch modern and contemporary
photograph collections
On the first of October 2021 a three-year project was launched in the Netherlands with the aim to research and disseminate knowledge about the identification and preservation of modern and
contemporary photographs. The project is a collaboration between the SBMK (Foundation for the Conservation of Contemporary Art) thirteen institutions with modern and contemporary photograph holdings, the University of Amsterdam, and the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands. It is a unique and sustainable effort to combine forces in order to increase the knowledge surrounding modern and contemporary photography within collections in a country where few photograph conservation experts work within museums.
Limited and often polluted data in museum registration databases leads to insufficient information on the photograph process and its material make-up. This influences the conservation measures that museums can take surrounding best practice for storage, exhibition, etc. In addition, since the beginning of this century, digital technologies and possibilities have increased and manufacturers of analog photograph papers from the twentieth century, such as Kodak and Polaroid, are disappearing.
The current (older) generations of photographers, conservators and other museum professionals still understand the analogue processes, the materials that were used, the chemical processes and the decisions taken during the making of a photographic work (printing, finishing, framing). The sharing of this is information is crucial for preserving these photographs. This project combines
knowledge derived via oral history, technical working groups, workshops and fundamental research, with existing knowledge, within a digital tool that aims to bridge the knowledge gaps within art institutions. UN Sustainability goals that are met with this project: 9, 11 & 12
About Clara Von Waldthausen
Clara von Waldthausen received her MA in Photograph Conservation from the University of Amsterdam and created the MSc Programme in Photograph Conservation there in 2014. Since
2001 she is the director of the Fotorestauratie Atelier VOF that provides services in advice, preservation, photograph conservation and in the digitization of fragile collections. Von Waldthausen has held positions as working group coordinator of ICOM-CC and was President of the Dutch Conservation Association (RN). As Getty Research Scholar Waldthausen commenced on new research in 2015 that deals with preservation issues surrounding analogue colour photography in art collections: preservation, authenticity, and materiality. She is currently doing her PhD on this topic.
Libby Ireland, Amy Griffin and Emily Williams
Going Green: Starting the Collection Care Sustainability Group at Tate
Tate’s Collection Care Sustainability Group (CCSG) was set up in 2020 by staff members wanting to create a platform for exchange of ideas, and to come together across departments to improve
the sustainability of our working practices. Our grassroots group meets bi-monthly to discuss ongoing projects, and members meet with senior staff to discuss how their work can be best supported. Setting up the group has been a learning curve for us all, as we looked to find a way to create meaningful change within a large institution.
In January 2021, the group was able to set up seminars with Lantern to deliver sustainability training across the division, and to help form an action plan for the group. Since then, the team
has worked on projects such as implementing a glove recycling system across the London sites, ongoing work to replace vinyl tapes with paper tapes, and looking into more sustainable options
for casing artworks.
This talk would give an overview of our experiences with Tate CCSG, highlighting the importance of collaboration across the wider museum, and the challenges we have faced, demonstrated
through discussion of some of the projects we have implemented. We are very aware that we are not alone in looking at ways to reduce our carbon footprint, and that many others in the
profession are trying to navigate the same challenges as us. We would like to share our approach, hear feedback, and prompt a conversation around key matters that need addressing within the
museum-sector.
About Libby Ireland
Libby Ireland is a Sculpture and Installations Conservator at Tate where she focusses on new acquisitions into the collection. Most recently Libby has been a researcher for Andrew Mellon funded Tate research project Reshaping the Collectible: When Artworks Live in the Museum. Ireland’s research interests include the relationship between the artist and museum, sustainability within the museum, and modern materials and fabrication processes.
About Amy Griffin
Amy Griffin is a Paintings Conservator at Tate Britain. After studying Fine Art at Chelsea College of Art she trained as a Paintings Conservator at the Courtauld Institute of Art, graduating in 2012. She has had a varied career working in both private practice and public institutions and has maintained a primary interest in the conservation of Modern and Contemporary paintings
About Emily Williams
Emily obtained her Bachelor’s in Conservation from Camberwell before receiving a postgraduate diploma in Art History from the Courtauld, and a dual Master in Conservation from UCL. She is
currently a paper conservator at Tate in London, working primarily with the museum’s acquisitions of contemporary works on paper and photographs.
Alessandra Guarascio
Preparing, presenting and maintaining Fish Bowl: recording experience and knowledge through
collaboration at M+
The issue of documentation is a growing and constant concern in the contemporary art arena. Since art is often focusing more on ideas and concepts than on techniques and materials, conservators have been looking for new strategies for improving the complex nature of documentation to share knowledge for the successful future fruition of the artworks. The present contribution is part of the museum effort of defining and experimenting good
practices of documentation for a specific typology of installations including water. We present here a case study involving Fish Bowl, a video installation work by Yang Zhenzhong that entered the M+ collection in 2012. The work includes a set of instructions for the realization of a tank to be filled with water and four small water pumps. CRT monitors are placed inside to show a human mouth repeating “we are not fish”.
Through this statement, the artist sets human consciousness against the harsh reality of lack of physical and mental space. The reasons why taking the challenge include on one hand the need of realizing the work as a display manifestation while preserving its identity and following the artist requirements. On the other hand, the need of improving the design and maintaining the artwork for temporary exhibition urges us to develop a methodology for recording knowledge from the all the collaborators that will guide future iterations and maintenance. To this aim, many different professionals have been called upon for their specific expertise, including the art technicians and AV specialist mainly involved in the highly demanding maintenance of the work.
About Alessandra Guarascio
Alessandra Guarascio is the Conservator of Installation Art at M+ museum in Hong Kong. Since 2018 she is responsible for the documentation, preservation, and presentation of the installation
art collection. Prior to her current appointment, she spent six years working on all phases of Conservation and collections care at ArtScience Museum and National Gallery in Singapore.
Alessandra also collaborated with Museo del Novecento, Hangar Bicocca, and the Italian Design Museum in Milan from 2009-2012. She obtained her master’s degree in Conservation of Contemporary Art from Brera Academy of Fine Art in Milan, with a thesis on the documentation and rearrangement of a complex video installation by John Bock. Her interests lie in conservation
theory, museum practice, oral history, and artist interviews, with a special focus on installation art and conceptual art. She is also the Coordinator of INCCA-AP (International Network for the
Conservation of Contemporary Art – Asia Pacific).
Ruth del Fresno-Guillem and Alexandra Gelis
Symbiotic relationships migrated plants
Community Specific Installation and conservation dialogues. With – living: migrant relations. A conversation between artist Alexandra Gelis and Conservator Ruth del Fresno-Guillem.
This proposal wants to present the equilibrium between artist and conservator as being part of an ecosystem that can be less fragile and more respectful based on the truth and reconciliation between creation, conservation and the environment. The proposal aims to show an excerpt of the ongoing conversation between Gelis and del Fresno-Guillem concerning the community-specific installation With – living: migrant relations, an immersive, interactive, sculptural sound and film installation that invites viewers to interact at multiple levels with the complexities of symbiotic relations of the Migrated Plants focused on the migration to the city of Toronto.
Stories in the entanglement between plants, people, soil, bacteria, cells, and fungus, become symbiotic with each other to continue existing. The community-specific art installation is part of the ArtWorxTO West Hub project curated by Claudia Arana in Toronto. The conservation aims to find respectful conservation strategies involving the artist, the community and the art professionals, all in a synergy of alternatives contemplating non-material-based solutions such as training and oral tradition.
About Ruth del Fresno-Guillem
Ruth del Fresno-Guillem is a researcher, who cares, raises awareness, and conserves contemporary art in private practice. In 2017 she received her Ph.D. from the Universitat Politècnica de València, Spain. She believes in building long-term relationships with artists to enhance their understanding of the creative process and facilitate decision-making and documentation.
She actively collaborates with VoCA, Voices in Contemporary Art, for whom she conducted the public interview of Gladys Triana and is now part of the Spanish artist’s interview workshop working group. The interview and the artist’s voice have been the core of her practice either to work with public art, such as the recent Toronto-based project ArtWorxTO, or when working privately with artists. Most recently, she has focused on understanding oral tradition among the indigenous performance art community in Canada. She believes in sharing and collaboration in her practice. TestimoniArt is her always-in-progress free access platform with
some interviews at www.ruthdelfresno.com. You can find her in Toronto, Canada or wherever she is invited.
About Alexandra Gelis
Alexandra Gelis is an artist who works with many life materials like seeds, plants, soil, and feelings, all in balance with rituals and technology-based and space-based installations. Looking
for queer solutions through questions and embracing openness as a possible solution, Ruth del Fresno-Guillem works with Gelis in an open conversation that embraces liminal and sustainability
solutions between the ongoing creative process and the possible conservation of the artwork.