Representing Pasts – Visioning Futures
Abstract
Objects move through time and space accumulating shifting values and significances which are written into their forms and the meanings carried with them. Then they arrive at a museum. How do we understand the marks of time: badges of honour or distraction from the authentic? The future of the object waits in limbo until a conservator acts. Their interventions are a culmination of research, and reasoning and have been portrayed in the past as neutral acts which allow the object to speak. This has led to many invisible or ‘neutral’ repairs – the beige gap fill familiar in museums. Conserving an object occupies a minute point of an object’s lifespan, yet it determines the ways in which an object is experienced and understood. Even when supported by consultation the decisions made by the conservator reflect us and these are translated into an object’s tangible and intangible presence. An object in a museum sits in the liminal space connecting past and present. Conservation promises that narrative a future. Past histories can be barbaric, or joyful, or dreary all are captured in a tangible thing. Neutral interventions belie the role of the conservator in that transmission and perpetuation of the inherent biases within culture and heritage. This paper presents A Manifesto of Disruptive Conservation which examines the power that conservators hold under the guise of neutrality, both in action and stance, and the political and violent ramification that has upon the objects in the museum and the communities and people they represent.
Ellie originally studied Graphic Design at Camberwell College of Arts, London and then transferred her visual eye and thought processes into her work and research in conservation. Her work investigates the conceptual nature of objects and museum spaces and how changes in these spaces can alter the perception and interpretation of the work. She now works as Fellowship and Membership Programme Manager for the IIC.
Jane Henderson,Professor of Conservation BSc, MSc, ACR, FIIC, SFHEA – I am the Secretary General International Institute for Conservation. I teach on the BSc and MSc degrees in Conservation and Collection Care. I serve on the editorial panel of the Journal of the Institute for Conservation, am a co-opted member on the trustee board of the Welsh Federation of Museum and Art Galleries. I am internationally recognised, I am a visiting Researcher of the Scientific Conservation Institute in Beijing and I serve on the European standards body CEN TC 346 WG11 and on the BSI standard group B/560 concerned with the conservation of Tangible Cultural heritage.