Objects as Temporal Entities

Image: close up of sprouting potatoes in Agnes Varda’s Patatutopia, LUMA Arles, April, 2024, rendered in duotone, photo by Kirsty Robertson, alteration by Liza Eurich.

Overview:

One of the key points of tension in building a more sustainable institution is that between the duty of care museums have towards artworks, artifacts, and belongings in their collections, and the energy and materials required to preserve those collections. Building on the work of groups such as Ki Culture, Gallery Climate Coalition, and STiCH to encourage more passive environmental controls and the use of sustainable, non-toxic materials in museum storage, this project understands art objects (in the words of curator and historian Marina Valle Noronha), as “temporal entities” that will inevitably degrade and decay over time.

Research for the riders clearly showed that while many artists, collecting institutions, and collectors want to build more sustainable and inclusive practices in the arts, they often don’t know where to start. The team behind Objects as Temporary Entities tackled this challenge from multiple angles, creating a series of interconnected guides, artworks, flowcharts, and a solar-powered archive to help others understand what happens to artworks and objects after the process of making is complete.  

Objects as Temporal Entities includes the following: 

A set of acquisitions riders and discussion points further explained through an acquisitions addendum and a flowchart are designed to help artists, museums, and collectors open discussions on low- and no-intervention conservation of artworks. The riders are supported by The Fiction of Permanence, a series of materials guides, each a short handbook dedicated to a single material and artwork case study, designed to illustrate what happens as different substances degrade over time. Potatotemporal, an artwork, provides a collection of potato-like objects in various media, some of which will be artificially aged while others degrading naturally, to visually demonstrate the impact of time, temperature, and humidity on different materials. Archivetemporal, a solar-powered archive and website, gathers the strands of the project, documenting our research and outcomes.  

The components of the project are held together by the object of the potato. A humble vegetable which clones itself and rots in a spectacularly odorous manner, the potato has been used both visually and metaphorically throughout the project to explore time, materials, and human/ more-than-human interaction. Developed by the Centre for Sustainable Curating with members of the Synthetic Collective at LUMA Arles as a part of the Sustainable Institution (TSI) residency, Objects as Temporary Entities is intended to be both useful and thought-provoking. Grounded in deep research and creative engagement, the project aims to help artists and collectors factor in the long and short lives and afterlives of artworks and objects through the lens of health and climate impacts.

On-site Team:

Kirsty Robertson – project lead, research and writing on the acquisitions riders and addendum, The Fiction of Permanence materials guides (Potato, PLA bioplastic), final report, maker: salt and wool potato, flowchart content.

Imogen Clendinning – research and development of the Archivetemporal solar archive.

Kelly Jazvac – research and maker, mycelium, PLA, clay, felt, paper pulp, and sunflower marrow potatoes, flowchart design.

Katie Lawson – research and writing on The Fiction of Permanence materials guides (Felt, Concrete).

Tegan Moore – research and maker, tree of heaven potato, research and development of shipping crate and display system.

Kim Kraczon – mentor and lead on acquisitions riders and addendum.