sustainability | Nicole Burisch

Exploring Sustainability Across the Arts (ESA) is an ongoing initiative that aims to explore sustainable alternatives to vinyl exhibition signage, along with perspectives on sustainability across the arts. Starting in 2021, during my tenure as Director of the FOFA Gallery, I launched a project to develop and document alternative materials and techniques for creating gallery signage. The project has included a series of hands-on workshops, in-gallery experiments, collaborations with artists and conversations with others working on similar ideas.

A bilingual signage toolkit and publication are available for download.

Since September 2024, Josh Jensen and Joé Côté-Rancourt have been leading this initative as Co-Curators in Sustainability and Engagement at the FOFA Gallery and helped bring these techniques to other art spaces in Montréal (including the Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery), and beyond.

The project was initiated with support from team members Geneviève Wallen, María Andreína Escalona De Abreu, and Pierina Corzo-Valero. The first year of the project was led by Jasmine Sihra, Curator of Sustainability and Engagement.

This project receives the ongoing support from: the Canada Council for the Arts; Concordia University’s Centre for Creative Reuse (CUCCR); the Centre for Sustainable Curating at Western University; and the Sustainability Action Fund.

Too Good to Waste

Adam Basanta, Ari Bayuaji, Alexa Kumiko Hatanaka, and Kelly Jazvac
July 22 – September 6, 2024

This selection of works was curated in relation to the exhibition in the FOFA Gallery’s Main
Space, expanding upon its themes of labour, material care, reuse, and sustainability. Artists Adam Basanta, Ari Bayuaji, Alexa Kumiko Hatanaka, and Kelly Jazvac all use repurposed materials or scraps, resourcefully transforming these into artworks that find new ways to value what is usually considered waste. Using hands-on processes that require a deep engagement with their specific materials, these works draw attention to items that might otherwise be overlooked or discarded. Each of the works presented here intervenes at a distinct moment into the usual cycle of production-consumption-disposal, rethinking the idea that anything can be thrown “away.”

In a statement about her practice, Hatanaka cites the Japanese concept of mottainai or “too good to waste,” to describe how she saves scraps for inclusion in future works. This view towards the future, combined with an acknowledgement of the intrinsic value of even the smallest leftover pieces, offers a powerful framework for rethinking the very concept of waste. Like the works presented here, it asks us to think more carefully and more creatively about the materials that surround us, alongside the urgent need to reconsider how we interact with the systems and resources we rely on.

Read the full text on FOFA’s website.

Read a review by Vanessa Haugel.

All photos by Paras Vijan.