Materiel World

Loren Kronemyer

E-Waste Buyback: 2pm – 6pm, Tuesday 5 August — Thursday 7 August & 5.30pm, Friday 8 August

Opening: 5.30pm, Friday 8 August

Artist Talk: 4pm, Saturday 9 August

Exhibition: 9 August – 27 September 2025

Main gallery, Contemporary Art Tasmania

Materiel World explores the physical, logistical and social lives of objects via a highly loaded question: can we put it back in the ground?

In this ecological fantasy, the artists will attempt to reverse-mine community e-waste for copper, to shoot back from where it came. Along the way, they must navigate a maze of entangled ethics, laws, ideas and contradictions that guide the lifespan of risky matter. The word Materiel, as used in the title, is the military definition for equipment and munitions: inorganic inventory managed by the armed forces. 

From swords to plowshares and back again, this project represents the continued escalation of Loren Kronemyer’s research into the extremes of hard and soft survival skills. For over ten years, Kronemyer has used worldbuilding projects including Ecosexual Bathhouse, After Erika Eiffel, Millennial Reaper and Cryptic Female Choice as pretense to learn and teach a range of skills useful to both individual and collective pursuit of survival.

E-Waste Buy-Back

For this artwork, you are invited to participate in an e-waste buy-back. You can contribute your discarded tech — from tangled cords to dead devices — which will be mined for copper and lovingly re-cast for an eventual return to the earth. All material suitable for recycling will be exchanged for (1) share in community-owned-artist-held-ordinance. 

To participate, come to the front desk at Contemporary Art Tasmania with small, dismantle-able items, especially things with copper inside. Our e-waste scrutineers are on site from:

2pm – 6pm, Tuesday 5 August
2pm – 6pm, Wednesday 6 August
2pm – 6pm, Thursday 7 August 
From 5.30pm, Friday 8 August

Audio and USB cables (any length, any condition — the more tangled, the better)
Power cords and chargers
Old headphones or earbuds
Broken remote controls
Dead phones, MP3 players or portable electronics
Computer mice, keyboards or hard drives
Small electronic toys or gadgets
Miscellaneous e-waste bits from the bottom of your drawer

NOTE: We cannot accept smoke alarms, large appliances or devices containing liquid.

If you can carry it in one hand and if it once had a working wire, plug or beep — we’ll take it.

Artist bio

Loren Kronemyer is an artist living and working in regional Lutruwita/Tasmania. Her works span interactive and live performance, experimental media art, curatorial projects, and large-scale worldbuilding efforts aimed at exploring ecological futures and survival skills. She frequently collaborates with metatechnician Hosting, and with Ian Sinclair as Pony Express.

Collaborators

Co-creator and Metatechnician: Hosting
Videographer: Joseph Shrimpton at Flare Productions
Armourer: Wes Miles, Paul Miles
Co-Conspirator: Jenni Large
Legal Department: Sebastian Marcu at Studio Legal
CAT Fabrication and Installation: Karl Dauner, Bob O’Connor, Stuart Houghton, Andy Barnes, Ross Crick
Leadlight Artist: Margaret Ella
E-Waste Scrutineer (Tāmaki Makaurau): Batanai Mashingaidze
Assistant Producers (Kepa Kurl): Allyson Tas and sarsby

Content Warnings

Discussion of firearms, images of firearms, loud noises.

Accessibility

The exhibition is mobility accessible. Roomsheet available online and in large font hardcopies at the front desk. Please contact CAT if you have any accessibility requirements.