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Living matter: the preservation of biological materials in contemporary art

Abstract

"Eggshells, flowers, sponge cake, dried bread, living organisms--these are just a few of the many biological materials that contemporary artists have used to make art. But how can works made from such perishable ingredients be preserved? Because they may be prone to rapid decay, even complete disappearance, biological materials used in art pose a range of unique conservation challenges. The difficulty lies not only with their physical preservation but also with the complex conceptual dilemmas that these works pose, as they complicate conventional notions of what art is and how it can or should be experienced. This grounbreaking book, the proceedings of an international conference held in Mexico City in June 2019, probes the challenges associated with displaying, collecting, and preserving these unique works of art. The twenty-five papers from the conference present a range of case studies, prominently featuring artists' perspectives as well as conceptual discussions, thereby affording a comprehensive and richly detailed overview of current thinking and practices on this topic. The free online edition of this publication is available at getty.edu/publications/living-matter/ and includes videos and zoomable high-resolution photography"--Provided by publisher.

Contributors

Publisher

  • Publication

    Los Angeles: Getty Conservation Institute, 2022

  • Year

Is about

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Classification

  • ISBN

    • 1606066870
    • 9781606066874

Annotations / title notes

  • Notes

    Proceedings of the symposium "Living Matter: The Preservation of Biological Materials Used in Contemporary Art" / "La Materia Viva: Conservación de materiales orgánicos en el arte contemporáneo" which took place June 3-5, 2019, in Mexico City and was co-organized by the Getty Conservation Institute (GCI), the Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo (MUAC) of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), and the Escuela Nacional de Conservación, Restauración y Museografía "Manuel del Castillo Negrete" (ENCRyM) of the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (INAH).

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