Toxic Material(itie)s: Eco-Material Entanglements in Art, Workshop at the Käte Hamburger Kolleg Cultures of Research, Aachen, December 6-7, 2023.

Organized by Christian Berger (Universität Siegen), Ruby de Vos (University of Groningen), Kyveli Mavrokordopoulou (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam)

Our workshop sets out from the obvious, yet underexplored assumption, that much of the very stuff that art is made of is toxic. Whether working in the studio, in the dark room, in the quarry, or at contaminated sites, artists have been, and continue to be, exposed to a wide range of toxic materials. But exposure always goes hand in hand with its inevitable corollary, pollution—from the dumped toxic waste generated by the production of photographic materials to the air and water pollution generated by marble extraction. The toxicity of artistic materials extends far beyond the hazards of the artist’s job—they are part of larger environmental issues. So what can we learn when we explore artworks through the lens of their materiality within an expanded frame that is attentive to their art historical as well as environmental and sociopolitical context?

PRORGAM:

6 December 2023

17:00-18:30: Keynote by Esther Leslie (Birkbeck, University of London): Art's Mediation as Remediation: On Some Artworks and their Reuses of Toxic Materials

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7 December 2023

09:00-09:15: Set-up

09:15-09:30: Kyveli Mavrokordopoulou, Ruby de Vos, Christian Berger: Welcome and Introduction

09:30-10:00: Ann-Sophie Lehmann (University of Groningen): The Golden River: Depresenting Pollution in Flax Production

10:00-10:30: Marjolijn Bol (Utrecht University): Materials and Institutions of Permanence: Durable Art for Nuclear Waste Containment

10:30-11:00: Material Engagement Session

11:00-11:30: Break

11:30-12:15: Kaja Ninnis (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin): Poisonous Craft? Toxicity and the Arts and Crafts Movement

12:15-13:00: Ingrid Halland (University of Bergen): White Waste? Towards a Deep Surface Aesthetics

13:00-14:15: Lunch Break

14:15-15:00: Jessica Varner (Getty/ACLS Fellow): Exhibiting Toxicity: Indanthren’s Empire, Selling Coal’s Modern Colors at BASF

15:00-15:45: Kappy Mintie (Yale University, online): Oil of Vitriol: Sicilian Sulfur Mining and the Photo-Chemical Trade at the Turn of the Twentieth Century

15:45-16:15: Break

16:15-17:00: Marek Jancovic (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam): The Poison Upstream: Toxic Materials in Celluloid Manufacturing and the Possibility of an Equitable Geography of Cinema

17:00-17:45: Screening: Daphné Le Sergent, The Extractive Image, 2021

17:45-18:15: Closing Remarks

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To attend in person or online, please register via email: eventskhk.rwth-aachen.de