Caring for Contemporary Art

What is Contemporary Art?

Over time, definitions of contemporary art have shifted in response to its complexity and ever-evolving nature. While some define contemporary art as work made by living artists, others have sought to connect a definition to historical events, such as the advent of the World Wide Web in 1989.1

The scope of contemporary art is boundless, and therefore difficult to categorise and define. As a result, artists, curators, and art institutions are tasked with constantly renegotiating and redefining the attributes that make contemporary art unique and distinguishable.

Contemporary art can be produced in any and all mediums. It may be presented conventionally in galleries and museums, outdoors in public space, or in digital and virtual spaces. It can combine multiple mediums like painting and video (multi-disciplinary) and can be made in collaboration with others from different disciplines, such as musicians or engineers (interdisciplinary). Contemporary artists can work in ways that seamlessly merge ideas and techniques from multiple disciplines, like Artificial Intelligence and poetry with installation (transdisciplinary). Some artists may even reject the idea of disciplines all together (anti-disciplinary), and chose to define their practice on their own terms.

Despite its ability to evade absolute definitions, contemporary art consistently acts as a mirror to reflect current social, political, cultural and artistic issues and events, which can concern not only the present day, but also the past and even the future.

Contemporary art is as rich and varied as the many intersections of society. The work can be concerned with activism, community groups or representing marginalised voices. It can be playful, funny and resourceful, and can help us to find meaning in the world around us.

Contemporary art materials

The twentieth century saw artists stepping away from tradition and experimenting with new and unexpected materials. Everyday objects, textiles, industrial substances, natural phenomena and digital media were incorporated into art. Items such as foams, plastics, adhesives and industrial materials became more widely available and were used by artists as: a cost-effective solution, a source of inspiration, or a product to conceptualise their work with. This advancement with technology and materials has also meant that artists can often work at scale and with ambition to create artworks that traditionally haven’t been able to be made.

As these new materials don’t have long lifespans, the materiality of contemporary art poses many questions for conservators, collection managers and registrars alike. Our industry has long based its standards around the traditional mediums of works on paper, paintings and objects made of stone, metals and wood, so, what do we do to care for artworks that consist of new materials such as industrial paints, plastics and digital media? Museum professionals take into account scholarly research to utilise tailored approaches to each type of material and its unique applications. Additionally, when possible, museum professionals work with the artist to get to know their art making processes.

Inherent Vice

Inherent vice is a term that is often used when considering the conservation of contemporary art. If a work has an ‘inherent vice’, this means that an artwork is, one day, bound to deteriorate or be defective due to the use of impermanent or incompatible materials, the work’s structural failure or the history of the object. This also refers to digital and analogue materials, such as VHS, DVDs and tapes, which have short lifespans.

Most materials will, eventually, deteriorate. Conservation and preservation practices can help to delay and prevent this, such as proper storage and handling.

For digital works, digitisation and documentation are integral to ensuring audio and video components are able to be displayed as the artist intended.

Every artwork with ‘inherent vice’ is treated on a case-by-case basis by Collections staff. At Buxton Contemporary, we work with our colleagues to pack, document, store and, when required, repair the artworks in the collection to ensure they can be viewed and exhibited into the future.

Case Study

At Buxton Contemporary, our Art Collection contains artworks made in the 1980s through to current day. Artworks in our collection are great examples of the complexities of caring for contemporary art, with many artworks made of unique and complicated materials, such as this installation, Taking a Chance on Love (2003), by Louise Weaver:

This artwork is made from a variety of natural and synthetic materials and objects, including wood, crocheted cotton and lamb’s wool, a designer chair, repurposed materials like “polyester flowers[…] recouped from Issey Miyake evening bag”, and immaterial components such as the lighting and sound recording. The physical parts of the artwork are packed with archival materials in travel crates and the sound recording file is stored both in digital format (on a dedicated network server) and in the original form the artist provided it in, ie. USB, hard-drive or a physical disc. There is also an installation manual to show how to put the work together correctly.

Site specificity, time-based media and complex installations

Contemporary artworks that include video, film, slide, audio, performance or computer technologies are referred to as time-based media works because they have duration as a dimension and unfold to the viewer over time. Collecting, preserving, and exhibiting these artworks poses complex technical and ethical challenges to conservators. Instability and change are inherent to these artworks, since the original artist-selected equipment and technologies may fail and become obsolete.

Digital works are assessed and stored in multiple different formats and locations to safe-proof them against digital file corruption.

Certain technologies important to the functioning of an artwork, such as specific screens or projectors, are often sourced in multiples as backups or descriptions of alternative items are given by the artist (such as screen size, output resolution, aesthetic characteristics).

Installation works are also complex to care for in Collections as they frequently combine a variety of materials, digital media and are often large in scale. Moreover, installation works are often designed for a specific space, gallery type or environment. To make sure these artworks can be cared for and exhibited in the future, Collections staff and Conservators work to create installation plans, inventories, iteration reports and condition assessments of these works.