INCCA Talk with M+ Museum: On Meaning and Interchangeability

Critical discoveries and negotiations for the conservation and presentation of ‘Time Traveller’ by Sara Tse

Conservators responsible for installation art often face challenging questions regarding an artwork's identity, variability, material complexity and meaning.

What criteria can be used to define and understand which elements of a work are unique and which are replaceable when the artist uses interchangeability as a strategy in their installations? What happens when significant components are found damaged during assessment? And what important discoveries can be made that contribute to the overall understanding and interpretation of the work, now and into the future?

This INCCA Talk will focus on the work of the artist Sara Tse highlighting key elements of her practice, and the evolution of the active collaboration between the Artist, the Conservator and the Curator to arrive at a sensitive approach toward conserving and displaying her work.

A close collaboration between Sara Tse and the Conservation Team was encouraged and facilitated by the Curatorial team through a relationship built on trust. This collaboration represents the first comprehensive partnership for Installation Art at M+. The team was able to reconstruct the identity of the work and embrace its evolution within its new context as part of a museum collection, while allowing the artist to realize new components for the first presentation. The Artist had an important role in the decision-making process.

Please join us in conversation with Hong Kong artist Sara Tse, M+ custodians of the work, Alessandra Guarascio, Conservator of Installation Art, Natalie Harding, Object Conservator, and Tina Pang, M+ Curator of Hong Kong Visual Culture.

You can register for the INCCA Talk here.

*Please note that this INCCA Café follows the local time in Hong Kong. (Hong Kong 4 pm / Perth 4 pm / Seoul 5 pm / Mexico City 3 am / Los Angeles 1 am / Amsterdam 10 am / London 9 am)

Photo credit (in order):

1. Lok Cheng, image courtesy of M+, Hong Kong.
2. Sara Tse Suk-ting. 'Time Traveller', 2014. porcelain, wood furniture and found objects, dimensions variable. M+, Hong Kong. [2015.590]. © Courtesy of the Artist and Osage Gallery. Photo: Lok Cheng, image courtesy of M+, Hong Kong.
3. Sara Tse Suk-ting. 'Time Traveller', 2014. porcelain, wood furniture and found objects, dimensions variable. M+, Hong Kong. [2015.590]. © Courtesy of the Artist and Osage Gallery. Photo: Lok Cheng, image courtesy of M+, Hong Kong.