Multiple artifacts from Syracuse University Libraries’ Special Collections Research Center’s (SCRC) Plastics Artifact Collection are currently on display in the University of Toronto Art Museum exhibition titled “Plastic Heart: Surface All the Way Through.” The exhibition, open from Sept. 8 through Nov. 20, draws on the existing work of the “Synthetic Collective,” an interdisciplinary collaboration of visual artists, cultural workers, and scientists based in Canada. The exhibition features data visualizations, artworks created by the “Synthetic Collective” in response to their research, as well as new commissions by contemporary artists from the Great Lakes Region. Also included in the exhibition are historical installations, including the artifacts on loan from SCRC, and objects that used early plastics that are now degrading, evoking questions of conservation and preservation in museum culture. This exhibition spotlights the connections between scientific and artistic methodologies and challenges the viewer to explore how arts-based approaches to thinking and working can make viable contributions to environmental science and activism.
Image credit: Synthetic Collective
SCRC’s Curator of Plastics and Historical Artifacts Courtney Asztalos will be participating in the “Plastic Heart” exhibition public programming as a member of the panel discussion “Dialogue #3: The Plastic Conservation Conundrum: Preserving Plastics in Museum Collections and Plastics’ Durability in the Environment” on Wednesday, Oct. 13, 6–7:30 p.m. EDT. Asztalos says, “The Synthetic Collective’s groundbreaking work in their experimental exhibition ‘Plastic Heart: Surface All the Way Through’ brings necessary awareness to the plastics lifecycle in exhibition-making, art and collections while proposing exciting alternative models and methods forward for change. I am thrilled to participate in a conversation on how plastic cultural artifacts within the context of special collections pose unique challenges and opportunities, emphasizing how SCRC’s plastics collections are rich resources for researchers and artists to investigate for activism, and unearth for the creation of new scholarship and artmaking. As a special collections curator, I am committed to bringing greater awareness to the broader public about how our collections can support innovation, change and agency within our current global plastics pollution crisis.”
“The Plastics Collection,” initially conceptualized as an umbrella term for the plastics-related collections at SCRC, serves as a research and programming resource to advance the study and understanding of plastics in modern society. These collections include manuscripts, photographs, time-based media, books, periodicals and over 5,000 plastic objects produced from the late 19th century to the present day. To learn more about the SCRC’s collections in this subject area, visit the SCRC website.
More information regarding the “Plastic Heart” exhibition, public programming and registration information can be found at the University of Toronto Art Museum website.
