Kirsty Robertson

The Centre for Sustainable Curating
Residency at LUMA Arles
Prototype: Acquisitions Contract, low-data solar powered website plan, materials guide
Chief mentor: Kim Kraczon, Kim Kraczon, conservator of modern materials and contemporary art specialising in sustainable solutions for cultural heritage, Director of Materials at Ki Culture, Advisor at Gallery Climate Coalition
We propose a holistic, scalable, and adaptable process of sustainable exhibition making that emerges from the guiding principles of repair, communication, and relationship-building. The outcomes include:
1. An adaptable acquisitions contract that allows for the decay of artworks and objects
2. a plan for low-data solar-powered exhibition websites, and
3. a materials guide for artwork production and installation that is specifically attuned to accessibility and inclusivity.
Each of these outcomes is designed to build from work already done by our collectives and other important groups such as the Gallery Climate Coalition and Ki Culture. Thus, the objective is to define and tackle the knowledge gaps in creating sustainable institutions, using our areas of expertise in plastics, low-waste and low-carbon curating, pedagogy, and accessibility, as well as our location in a geographic region of extreme weather and landscapes as guiding factors in our contribution. Our objectives will be carried out with accessibility, clarity and low data design in mind, and be ready to implement in a range of exhibition venues, from small to large-scale, and from urban to rural to virtual.
The Centre for Sustainable Curating supports museum research, exhibitions, visual/digital production, and pedagogy focused on environmental and social justice. Located in the Department of Visual Arts at Western University (Canada), CSC projects focus on waste, pollution, and climate crisis, and the development of exhibitions and artworks with low carbon and waste footprints. The Synthetic Collective is an interdisciplinary collaboration among visual artists, humanities scholars, and scientists centred on plastic pollution in the Great Lakes watershed of North America (a massive system of lakes that holds more than 20 per cent of the world’s surface freshwater reserves). Crucial to the SC’s research methodology is the driving principle that artists and scientists conduct research together from the outset of the inquiry, and that research should not result in further environmental harm. The SC works to better connect scientific knowledge with cultural work, and to enrich artistic production with informed science. For this residency, the CSC and SC have come together to define and tackle the knowledge gaps in creating sustainable institutions, using our expertise in plastics, low-waste and low-carbon curating, pedagogy, and accessibility, as well as our location in a geographic region of extreme weather and changing landscapes, as guiding factors in our contribution.
“What excites me the most about collaborating with The Synthetic Collective as artists in residence in the sustainable institution is the challenge their work poses to prevailing standards in museum collections stewardship and resource intensive conservation conventions by granting artists the agency to sanction natural aging processes of materials over time and ultimately determine the lifespan of their own artworks.”
Kim Kraczon, 2023
bones tan jones

Parasites of Pangu 2.0 (working title)
Residency at Rupert Centre for Art and Education
Prototype: Herbal, plant and magical guide, working towards a sustainable performative practice
Chief mentor: Asad Raza, Artist
A new re-imagining of the opera, Parasites of Pangu, coinciding with the publishing of the written operatic score/novel, which also takes the form of a herbal, plant and magical guide. Parasites of Pangu tells the story of 5 trans nomads, who were reborn onto a wretched earth. Through speculative fiction, sci-fi and queer storytelling, this opera weaves ancient Chinese mythologies, herbal knowledge and magical thinking to paint a tapestry of inspiration and hope of building new worlds in community, to the audience. I envision an installation of brand new paintings and sculptures, which will also lay the foundation for the stage upon which the opera is performed. The paintings will expand on the visual narrative, acting like a traditional woven tapestry, telling the story of the myth. The sculptures will be figurative, also depicting the story of the opera. Echoing war monuments found on plinths around colonial cities, only depicting trans folks, queer folks, disabled folks, all in positions of power, depicting the resilience of their/our struggle.
bones tan jones (b.93 Liverpool) is a queer heretic whose work traverses materials, disciplines and time lines. raised in a church choir in the northwest of the UK, on the borderlands of mythical Wales and enchanted England, tan jones’s work has ne’er strayed far from the ecclesiastic rituals of worship, only in tan jones’s world, the church has been burnt, the yew trees thrive in the ashes, and god is trans. bones tan jones presents their living praxis ‘optimystic dystopia’ as a spiritual practice. an eternal storyteller, alternative realities are explored through alter egos, retellings of ancient Chinese and Celtic mythologies through creating; symphonies/operas/psalms/triptychs/sigils/stele/installations/interventions/inter-active workshops. remaining open, so the ancestors can speak through, bones has collaborated with the ghosts of dead artists, unknowingly channelled ancient seal script inscriptions of their families’ clan symbol, and sung many a lullaby in the belly of trees thousands of years on this land. this, is the work. this, is the way. all tools, souvenirs and tales collected on the way are offered up to you, as an art, of sorts.
“I am looking forward to mentoring and learning from bone tan jones. Having attended their remarkable performance at the Bierpinsel tower in Berlin in 2022, I believe bones is able to channel energies and forces in a highly relevant and moving way. I believe the art world needs to work harder to include the ways and practices of bones and others who do not fit in the traditional categories of the plastic arts”
Asad Raza, 2023
Beth Collar

The Hearth / The Kiln / The Heart of the Wood
Residency at E-WERK Luckenwalde
Prototype: A large-capacity outdoor wood-fired kiln and a sequence of harvestable ‘tiny’ woodlands
Chief mentor: Mae-ling Lokko, Architectural Scientist, Educator and Designer
The Hearth / The Kiln / The Heart of the Wood is a proposal for an interleaving, reciprocal project consisting primarily of a large-capacity outdoor wood-fired kiln and a sequence of harvestable ‘tiny’ woodlands. Underlying all aspects of the project is a sustainable and sustaining community. The project would seek to grow a community of kiln users who would learn ‘on the job’ and be able to teach others as time went on. The project would also require a wood store, to be replenished after every burn, covered work area and accommodation and facilities for overnight firing duties. This proposal seeks to reclaim the full production methods and humanise the firing process, connecting artists with their materials and processes in a more embodied way, and empowering them to run their own burns. By cultivating a space for collaboration and making, the proposal goes beyond the bricks of the kiln itself, fostering lasting connections that can have a sustained and positive impact on the artist scene in Berlin as well as providing a precedent for other similar projects elsewhere in Germany and beyond.
“In her poetic concept of the ‘tiny forest”, the electric kiln and earthen craft, Beth narrows the gap between energy extraction. Her proposal brings to the surface, the tension between today’s policies around fire and sustainable material practices across cultural institutions and the broader built environment”
Mae-ling Lokko, 2023
Beth says, “I’m very excited about what I’ll find out during the residency, and I’m very grateful to the sustainable institution and to E-WERK Luckenwalde for giving me this opportunity to build something that could be sustainable and regenerative in all senses of the words! In the project I am seeking to make a stronger connection between art making, our actual world and a spiritual world. My project seeks to build community, re-discover lost ways of making and to honour old gods and demons”
Beth Collar (b. Cambridge, England, 1984) Solo projects include The Unforgiven, Sundy, London (2022), Basher Dowsing, von ammon co., Washington DC, U.S.A. (2021); SHANE, a collaboration with Elif Saydam, Zarinbal Khoshbakht, Cologne, Germany(2021); “End Quote,” stadium, Berlin (2020); Daddy Issues, Dilston Grove, London, with Matt’s Gallery and Southwark Park Galleries (2019); Retrogression, a collaboration with Eoghan Ryan, 427 gallery, Riga, Latvia (2019); Thinking Here Of How The Words Formulate Inside My Head As I Am Just Thinking, Waldo at Mathew Gallery, New York (2018); Cloaked Output Vol 2: Spirals of Focus, Primary, Nottingham (2018); Seriously, Mark Tanner Sculpture Award, Standpoint, London (2017); and 11/50, Fig2 at the ICA, London (2015). Recent performances have taken place at Why Words Now, Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts and Art Hub Copenhagen (2021) CentrumCentrum, Szczecin, Poland (2020); Camden Arts Centre, London (2020). Group exhibitions include Doppel, two man show with Jesse Darling, A plus A, Venice, IT (2021), VON UTEN, two man exhibition with Shaun Motsi, Elvira, Frankfurt am Main, DE (2021), Kunstverein Kesselhaus, Bamberg, Germany (2020); Marlborough Contemporary, New York(2020); Bärenzwinger, Berlin (2019); Cell Project Space, London (2018); Kunstverein München, Munich (2017); and KW, Berlin (2016). Since 2015 Collar has been an associated artist with the charity Waterloo Uncovered. Collar’s solo show at the Westfälischer Kunstverein opened at the end of October 2023.
about the residency programme
the sustainable institution is an open call for all creative practitioners including artists, architects, design studios and scientists to develop material or immaterial prototypes in the fight against climate change and mitigate the environmental burden of exhibition making. The grant is intended to provide support towards the research and development of a prototype, an early sample, model or idea of a concept or process towards sustainable exhibition making.
It is our pleasure to introduce you to our three winners of the sustainable institution residency! Creative practitioners Beth Collar, bones tan jones and Kirsty Robertson have been selected to develop a prototype for sustainable exhibition making with a grant of 20.000 EUR.
These creative practitioners were selected by a jury, which included Jan Boelen (Atelier LUMA, Artistic Director) Mae-ling Lokko (Architectural scientist, Educator and Designer), Kim Kraczon (Director of Materials at Ki Culture, Advisor at Gallery Climate Coalition), Lucia Pietroiusti (Curator), Asad Raza (Artist), Viktorija Šiaulytė (Rupert, Director) and Helen Turner (E-WERK Luckenwalde, Artistic Director. Each successful applicant will be mentored by the jury over a research and development period, with a studio at their respective institution in Spring 2024.
Stay tuned for more information and the release of the prototypes at the end of the residency!