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Kari Robertson

Spoken word, sociaal-maatschappelijk, sculptuur, schrijven, samenwerking, installatie, Ecologie, Audiovisueel, Artistiek onderzoek

I am Kari Robertson (b.1988 Edinburgh, UK) a visual artist, teacher and researcher based in Rotterdam (NL) concerned with eco-social themes. I have recently exhibited at CCB, Bogota, TENT Rotterdam, An.other.world and BAK, Utrecht.  Working primarily with time-based media, my practice is engaged with impure and entangled substances and states, which speak as much to toxic histories as to collective becoming.

My work often interrogates 'myths of separability' that emerge from modernity, and explores notions of ‘toxicity’ and ‘contamination’ within complex naturecultures and polycrises contexts. Working across disciplines, my practice consistently engages with mutable substances and states including orchids, (rain)water, medicinal herbs and soil.

Increasingly in my solo and collaborative work I am combining my pedagogical and artistic practice in experimenting with more participatory and socially-engaged frameworks and forms. Key examples of this are; the soil study group (2021-present) I founded and worked with alongside my 2023 solo exhibition at An.other.world and my work as collaboration Garage School of Medicine (see Community Apothecary and Mobile Apothecary). I feel my practice is currently undergoing evolution and growth as I am challenge myself to align the ways I work fully with my ethics and objectives and to bring together different skills, tools and experiences I have developed over the past several years.

Garage School of Medicine Mobile Apothecary
Garage School of Medicine Mobile Apothecary (2025) - In collaboration with bike workshop Doe Het Zelf Werkplaats Garage School of Medicine developed our Mobile Apothecary in a cargo bike. The mobile apothecary is designed to take our community apothecary practice directly to host outdoor workshops in the contexts and communities with whom we engage. The ‘mobile apothecary’ contains: a portable kitchen, foldable worktops, an archive of (fermented/distilled/extracted) multisensory publications: herbal remedies such as ‘Fire Cider’, tinctures and scents from foraged plants. From the mobile apothecary we can also host and distribute publications from collaborators. Visitors are invited to engage with the mobile apothecary, to take part in the workshops and browse/take the publications for free.
Community Apothecary, Research Interrupted at BAK, Utrecht
Community Apothecary, Research Interrupted at BAK, Utrecht (2024) - Community Apothecary workshop presented during ‘Research Interrupted’ at Basis voor Actuele Kunst, Utrecht from the 23rd - 28th July 2024. This presentation brought together research fellows from the fellowship for situated practice 2023-24, for which I was a fellow as 'Garage School of Medicine'. The Garage School of Medicine is convened by Kari Robertson and Santiago Pinyol. Together, they developed the Garage School of Medicine during the BAK research fellowship for situated practice (2023-24) and launched the school there in July 2024. Garage School of Medicine is a proposition of nonalignment with hierarchical and imperialist medicine and medical discourse. It draws from, imagines and attempts to prefigure other conceptions of health and healing that are democratic, holistic, metaphorical, metaphysical, preventative, collective and hopeful. Examples of such existing practices include mutual aid, community care, biohacking, solidarity kitchens and radical herbalism. During the Community Apothecary workshop participants were asked to bring to the session a home remedy from their own context, or any ingredient that supports the health or wellbeing of them/their community, for example a herb, fruit, spice, a pill. If they did not have a home remedy in mind it could also be a plant that is otherwise significant for them. After making a brief presentation of the school research each participant shared our contributions to the apothecary: burning of peganum harmala for the evil eye, antidepressant, sage, spit and ash, saffron, laurel tea, nettle tea, mallow flowers, etc. These ingredients and what to do with them were added to publication we presented that day. After this participants were invited to, alone or in collaboration with other(s), devise a remedy (recipe, ritual/spell) for someone or something else. They could incorporate ingredients we gathered there on that day, or that they could find growing nearby, on the street, for sale at the market, supermarket etc. To help we made a guide to a nearby public physic garden called Pandhof st.Marie. We closed the session with a reflection on inflammation under late capitalism and with a cooking session of remedies with honey: An anti-inflammatory spread with turmeric, honey, coconut oil and dried spices, and a fermented garlic honey. Participants took home a jar of each of these, or could donate one to our 'Mobile Apothecary'.
Dilated Mud (2024) - CBK Supported project on polluted soil of Rotterdam presented at An other world project Space (Rotterdam South) Kari Robertsons’ exhibition dilated mud explored the soil of Rotterdam as a shared, highly polluted and toxic substance beneath our feet, which holds within it an archive of human behaviour; from industry to agricultural practices to chemical warfare. Regarded in this way, soil holds our collective memory and if observed closely might offer clues for how we might begin to transform and remediate toxic histories and practices. The exhibition draws from the alchemical tradition in which toxicity is not about specific substances but rather about imbalance of concentrations. The most famous line from the foundational, hermetic text. The exhibition brought soil from around Rotterdam South (some of the most leaded and toxic areas of the city) and using grow lamps grew remediating plants over the course of the exhibition. On the walls, presented somewhat like archaeological finds, were metal objects identified using a metal detector from Zuiderpark Rotterdam. A scent was released into the space that was distilled 'ground ivy' foraged from the same areas of South Rotterdam. Ground Ivy is an aromatic herb and member of the mint family, recorded as being the first cure for lead poisoning. Finally, a video was projected and the sound played into the space. The audio visual work documented and weaved together aspects of the research around the frequently quoted mistranslation from ancient text The Emerald tablet 'as above, so below.' A more accurate translation of the text reads 'the below is of the above, the above is of the below.' The video works around this important shift away from simile, metaphor or comparison and into material entanglement; from transcendence into terrestrial situatedness. As part of 'dilated mud', Soil Study Group hosted a listening and foraging walk and dinner event at An.other. world on June 15th, composed out of foraged and grown ingredients. The (toxic) Soil Study Group was initiated in 2022 with the shared desire to explore and learn ways to relate to the soil. Meeting bi-monthly, the members (a shifting group of students, teachers, graduates and researchers of the Willem de Kooning Academy/ Piet Zwart Institute in Rotterdam) have expanded what it can be to informally study together.
Cast Channel/Dredged Monuments (2023) - The last in the series of rainwater/fountain works which was shown at TENT in 2023 in the Material Memory exhibition. This was by far the most ambitious large-scale installation of this work and built on previous experience and iterations. The installation cast channel/dredged monuments (2023) collects rainwater from the roof of TENT and channels it through a network of flexible tubes. The rainwater is circulated through windows and walls, between spaces, cast ghosts of plastic containers and pools. It gestures towards an alternative type of plumbing; entangled, contingent, flexible, temporary and wholly corporeal.
SLEEP UP/WAKE DEEP (2023) - Audio/ radio art commission from The Lake Radio Copenhagen. Listen to the piece here: https://podcasts.apple.com/dk/podcast/kari-robertson-sleep-up-wake-deep/id954054130?i=1000604193039 Running time: 13 minutes Specs: AIFF (uncompressed) Description: SLEEP UP / WAKE DEEP is a restless meditation on sleep and sleeplessness. Oriented to, and within the body, the piece lingers in the discord between internal, circadian rhythms and clock (work) time. SLEEP UP / WAKE DEEP includes augmented voice, instruments, found and field recordings as it loosely moves through the course of a day without sleep.
recuerdos materiales / legados líquidos (material memories/ liquid legacies) (2022) - This work was shown at CCB Bogota as part of ARTBO fair and came out of a period of residency at the art and ecology program in del Rosario University of the arts Bogota. I was invited to adapt SWOLLEN PIPE/BRINE BLOOD for the context of Bogota integrating forms and references gathered during the residency period. The text about the work I paste here: recuerdos materiales / legados líquidos with awkward grace teeters on the edge of failure ; a queer and vulnerable work and position. The work materializes vulnerable as a body; contingent on environment - heat, wind, human hands. It evokes sensations of being held but also precarious. Many setbacks occurred among overwhelming privileges. As I was not there to install I know her form only through images, from touching pieces of her many tubes, tentacles and orifices during production. Like a long distance relationship things will never be fully resolved between us. People from the street have started to make wishes and throw their coins into the pond, a role and life I didn't predict or mediate but that is emergent and joyful. A reminder that all objects are woven from relations. The experience of making this work is inextricable from other experiences in Bogota; the beautiful downtown studio, the sounds of the street where speakers are tested with Bolero anthems, Lina the pipe specialist, the time to talk and walk while sourcing materials, opportunities to speak, listen and learn in new ways.
swollen pipe/brine blood (2021) - Installation at Growing Space Wielewaal. Video documentation here: https://vimeo.com/743289836 SWOLLEN PIPE/BRINE BLOOD is a playful exploration of 'aquatic architecture' and water as liquid connectivity. It was exhibited at Growing Space, a greenhouse gallery, open for display 24/7 in South Rotterdam. In the weeks leading up to the exhibition I collected rainwater from the surrounding area and flooded the greenhouse with it. The exhibition itself becomes a body of water; a sweating, enclosed pond. When it is hot the condensation collects on the walls and roof and drips back down to the floor. A series of fountains and pipes suck, drink, pump, channel, funnel and spray in a microcosm of the hydrologic cycle and the bodies and containers which constitute and mediate it. Cast from plaster, which is poured as a liquid and hardens into a soluble solid, these objects slowly melted back into the surrounding water during the course of the exhibition. The work is inspired by ecofeminist ideas, particularly Astrida Neimanis' Hydrofeminism essay and Alexis Shotwell's critique of purity politics. It strives to imagine bodies beyond sovereign cells, to think about shared streams that pass through us; of culture, of microbes, water, pollution and immunity.
drip/fold (2021) - Still from video. Full video available at: https://vimeo.com/648959699 This video emerged out of research I conducted at Deltaworkers residency in New Orleans (2019) and my own embodied experience breastfeeding my baby for 2 years. The video meditates on inextricable connections between environmental and bodily landscapes and toxicities.
Wet Signal Voice Gardens (2020) - Accessible interactive website for children/adults 2020. Access here: https://voicegardens.org/ Press the red button to record your voice and the square to stop. The site will record and visualize your voice into a unique shape and colour. This site is currently on exhibition at VISUAL Ireland https://www.visualcarlow.ie/exhibitions/info/wet-signal-voice-garden. It was designed with Luke Murphy and Cristina Cochoir to explore the politics of voice and accessibility in digital space. It is designed to be as universal as possible, without written instructions and to encourage experimental vocal sound making.
The Orchid Hunter (2019) - 2 channel Video with sound 10.13. This work explores the colonial history of orchid Hunters in Colombia. It was shown in Smeared States Group exhibition at Showroom Mama, Rotterdam in August 2019.
Mouth Orchid (2019) - Watercolor on paper 80cm x 50cm. This is from a series produced alongside the Orchid Hunter video for Smeared States exhibition at Showroom Mama (2019). The series of watercolors explored the idea that orchid grow to look like their pollinators (bees and butterflies). The work poses the question; If humans continue to pollinate orchids how will the flowers take on the forms of the human?
Winged Helix/Forkhead (2018) - One channel video 08.39, 2018. This video was commissioned by LaSalle gallery, Singapore. It takes the 1961 Alain Resnais film Last Year at Marienbad as its point of departure. Through the lens of various animals in Rotterdam zoo it questioning themes of performance of identity, how environment shapes species and memory.

Researcher Lecturer Social Practices

Datum:
Locatie: Rotterdam
In samenwerking met: Willem deKooning Academy

I also hold a research position for Social Practices. Initially this involved developing my own proposed research trajectory into interrogating myths of separability concocted under modernity and exploring alternatives. Within this broad context I focused specifically on researching cultural constructions of purity and toxicity.

https://research.wdka.nl/index.php/projects/

Teacher in New Earth Social Practices Willem deKooning Academy

Datum:
Locatie: Rotterdam
In samenwerking met: Willem deKooning Academy

I teach in the New Earth department of Social practices at the Willem de Kooning Academy. New Earth has a focus on critically understanding and decolonising ecology and post-capitalist design. I see this as both enriching and being an integral part of my broader practice.

https://beyond-social.org/wiki/index.php/Category:New_Earth

School of Commons Research Fellowship

Datum:
Locatie: Switzerland
In samenwerking met: School of Commons Zurich

Research/ Writing commission, 2020 (intro & five essays). Explores contamination and loss of boundaries, through the concept of 'Miasma' (a pre-germ-theory explanation of disease). Miasma actually means 'pollution' but could also be foul odours, fog, mist and noxious gases that spread both ill-health and immorality through the air. Miasma theory is holistic, a relational and negotiated approach to our environment, its postulates that if our surroundings are not healthy, neither are we.

https://www.schoolofcommons.org/labs/haptics-of-miasma

Deltaworkers Residency Mondriaan Fonds

Datum:
Locatie: New Orleans
In samenwerking met: Mondriaan Fonds

I was awarded the Deltaworkers residency in New Orleans through the Mondriaan Fund. My research proposal involved looking at aquatic architecture, liquid entanglements and attitudes to disease. This residency was hugely influential to my thinking and I am still working with concepts and forms I discovered there.

http://deltaworkers.org/

GHOST Facilitative platform

Datum:
Locatie: Rotterdam
In samenwerking met: Tender Centre Rotterdam, WORM Rotterdam, dePlayer Rotterdam

GHOST is a facilitative entity based in Rotterdam. It was co-founded by Madison Bycroft (AUS), Kari Robertson (UK) and Natalia Sorzano (COL) who met while studying for a Fine Art MA at The Piet Zwart Institute in Rotterdam. Together, under this cipher, we are interested in experimental forms of assistance, collaboration, authorship and exhibition-making. We are a mobile entity that has had various events to date (Screenings, performance events, exhibitions) in sometimes unexpected locations.

https://ghost.hotglue.me/
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