Friday 20 November 2020
Kintsugi: Aesthetic Value-led Conservation
Eva Hesse's Latex and Fibreglass Sculptures: A Case Study in Contemporary Conservation
Latex and fibreglass sculptures of pioneering artist Eva Hesse present a number of contemporary conservation challenges including rapidly degrading and fragile materials, conflicting commentary from the artist, arguments for and against refabrication, and the possibility of unstoppable destruction.
No Object is an Island: the necessity for collaboration in Conservation Practice
Conservation is a specific discipline, but it does not work on its own. In order to successfully start the conservation process, participation in the decision-making process is important from the international level, to internal museum departments to smaller external interest groups.
Preserving Moments: Challenges in the Conservation of Street Art
Street art conservation is one of the more prominent and contentious topics in the field. This poster begins by briefly defining street art, framing it within the body of cultural heritage. Issues of legality, authenticity and practicality in its conservation are addressed. This is then highlighted through a case study of the recently ‘missing’ Bristol Banksy Gorilla.
Challenges between contemporary art and conservation work
Thursday 19 November 2020
How Can Conservators Aid Conflict Recovery?
Over fifty world heritage sites are currently at risk, many of which are as a result of conflict. This poster demonstrates that an integrated approach of legislation, interventive conservation and training for local and governmental groups is the most effective way for conservators to aid conflict recovery.
Values-Led Conservation in a Small Museum: A Case Study From the Museum of Peoples and Cultures in Provo, Utah
This poster explores a case study of values-led conservation at a small University museum in Utah. The conservation of a collection of Andean textiles is discussed in relation to the values and resources of the institution.
Wednesday 18 November 2020
Here today, gone tomorrow: Questions posed by the work of Ai Weiwei to the conservation process
Both makers and users of contemporary art are questioning values that underpin the conservation process. The work of Ai Weiwei, as this poster illustrates, neatly encapsulates one such challenge. Through reconfiguring and destroying Neolithic vases’ Ai pose’s questions about the value attributed to original material or specific conditions.
A Tale of Two Contexts: Values-Led Conservation, Whose Values?
There have been increasing debates about how to safeguard objects that are held by Western museums but originate from a non-Western culture. Value interpretation of these objects is a constant challenge in conservation practice.
The poster demonstrates the possible divergence of value perception occurred in different cultural contexts, hoping to improve the understanding of the significance of a holistic value-assessment approach in any conservation effort.
Participatory Conservation and the West's Superiority Complex
Participatory conservation is necessary when dealing with cultural heritage. The conflicting values between western scientific methods and intangible beliefs held by indigenous communities needs to be resolved through a compassionate and collaborative approach. This poster discusses the importance of preserving human connection and the intangible aspects of artefacts.
Restoring cultural loss: conservation and restitution
This poster explores the role of the conservator in restitution debates. Recent emphasis on the preservation of intangible cultural heritage can be used to consider colonial taking as an act of cultural loss. Replicas have the potential to fill the material void after restitution, while also gaining new significances.
What can conservators do to aid recovery?
Tuesday 17 November 2020
The Value of Vandalism: The challenges that conservators face when considering the conservation of street art
Street art can be
simultaneously viewed as both an art-form and a crime. This presents conservation
decision-makers with a range of considerations concerning its historical,
illustrative and social value. The poster examines historically significant
works of graffiti and the complications inhibiting the creation of an
applicable conservation framework.
Emerging Conservation Dilemmas: How to treat new and mixed media in contemporary art?
Monday 16 November 2020
Poster assessment
3D/VR technology has become a new method that
helps conservators document heritage information. This poster intends to
introduce VR conservation briefly and analyze its advantages. Moreover, the
poster explores its related issues that arise in conservation ethics—— technology
probably damages heritage attributes and challenge conservators' guideline.
Wednesday 29 April 2020
Object J.0014: Manilla Currency Piece - By Ellen Seidell
Saturday 18 April 2020
B.0073 Nigerian Quiver and Arrows
Figure 1. Quiver and Arrows |
Figure 2. X-ray of Arrows A-D |
Figure 3. Arrow A |
Figure 4. Arrow B |
Figure 5. Arrow C |
Figure 6. Arrow D |
Figure 7. Corrosion on Arrow C |
Figure 8. Sinew Wrappings on Arrows C and D |
Friday 17 April 2020
Object Assessment : K. 0010 - Flute
K. 0010 is a flute from UCL the Ethnographic Collections (Fig. 1). The object composites three parts: horn mouthpiece, long wooden stem and linen string that connected these two objects. The materials of the flute are bone, wood and linen.
The length of the wooden stem flute is 749mm (UCL Ethnographic Collections, 2020).
The horn piece was shaped by reductive method – removal of the sharp end. It can also be observed that there were decorations pattern craved on the horn mouthpiece (Fig. 2).
It is predictable that the original material of the wood was millet millet–stalk (Fig. 3) which was one of the manufacture traditions of Flani (one of the composed members for Yauri Emirate) vertical flute (Erlmann, 1983).
The wooden flute was shaped by cutting away as obvious tool mark can be observed (Fig. 4). There are three holes on the main tube of the instrument (Fig. 5).
Bite mark can be observed on the horn piece (Fig. 6). It can be deducted that horn piece would cover the narrower end of the wooden stem when performed (Fig. 7) and the musicians would place his/ her mouths on the horn and fingers on the holes (Fig. 8).
2. Object biography and Statement of Significant
2.1 Object biography
The owner of K.0010 is P.G. Harris. The details of the object are included in his book ‘The Yauri Day Book’. It can hence be predicted that the object was discovered in Yauri Emirate. Yauri was a historic kingdom and traditional emirate (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2020), located in the north-western corner of Sokoto State, Nigeria (Salamone, 1985, p. 141) (Fig. 9). However, the content of the book is not accessible and instead, only several publications about Yauri Emirate are available. Resulting that there is a huge blank in object’s own biography.
2.2 Statement of Significance
Due to the limited accessible information available, the object can only be decided containing historic and aesthetic values.
2.3 Historic Value
The historic value of the flute, lies in that it was a witness of this British colonial history and Yauri Emirate’s history.
2.4 Aesthetic Value
The craftsmanship of the flute exemplifies the aesthetic value of the flute as it represents the indigenous and folk culture in Yauri Emirate that is unique among all other musical instruments around the world.
3. Assessment of condition
List of references
Erlmann, V., 1983. Notes on Musical Instruments among the Fulani of Diamare (North Cameroon). International Library of African Music: African Music, Volume 6, pp. 16-41.
Harris, P.G., 1930. Notes on Yauri (Sokoto Province), Nigeria. Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland: The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, Volume 60, pp. 283-334.
Salamone, F. A., 1985. The Social Construction of Colonial Reality: Yauri Emirate. Annee: Cahiers d’Etudes africanes, Volume 98, pp. 139-159.
UCL Ethnographic Collections, 2020. Horn mouth piece and long wooden stem. Available at: http://ethcat.museums.ucl.ac.uk/detail.aspx (Accessed: 30 March 2020).
Object Assessment: M.0049 – Shrine of the Hand (“ikegobo” in Edo language)
Fig. 1a Top of the shrine
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Fig. 1b Bottom of the shrine
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Fig. 1c Left side of shrine. An attendant consecutively supporting his master’s hand and holding a fan that symbolises accumulation of power and wealth.
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Fig. 1d Front (centre) of the shrine. A chief is depicted in chains of crossed straps of coral beads and a wrapper, carrying a sword of authority in his right hand (The Museum of Primitive Art, 1974, p.10; Ezra, 1992, p.108). His hands are held by two attendants on each side. A bottle of palm wine, which a symbol of wealth, is carved next to him.
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Fig. 1e Right side of shrine. An attendant is supporting his master’s hand while holding a shield with two spears in another hand.
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Fig. 1f Right side of the shrine. A third attendant in the same outfit is carved. He has a sword in one hand and a spear impaling a human head on another hand.
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Fig. 1g Back of the shrine. The upright, clenched right fist with an outward pointing thumb is the main motif of the cult of the hand symbolising ‘gathering up riches into one’s own hand’ (Ben-Amos, 1980, p.60).
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Fig. 1h Back of the shrine. A feather of the vulturine fish eagle (igan-oghohon no-k’uhumw’ivie-), the feather worn by the chiefs on their beaded headbands, symbolizing high rank (Bradbury, 1961, p.136).
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Fig. 2a Original reference quoted by Bradbury’s type B ikegobo (Pitt-Rivers, 1900, Plate 43, ills. 333-5)
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Fig. 2b A type B shrine of the hand on a polished, whitened mud platform in the second public room of the house of a traditional chief. Photo by Joseph Nevadomsky.(Ezra, 1992, p.108, fig. 38)
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Fig. 3a Back of the shrine.
Orange boxes – Areas of missing chips
Green boxes – Multiple cracks. Large cracks split through the motifs.
Blue boxes - Pest damages of various sizes and shapes.
Box A – An example of large hole made by previous pest infestation.
Box B - A dead larva or skin of an unknown pest is found.
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Fig. 3b Close-up of Box A in Fig. 3a. Damage made by unknown pest.
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Fig. 3c Close-up of at the thumb of the hand motif in Fig. 3a. Small circular entrance and exit holes possibly made by woodboring beetles.
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Fig. 4 Larva or skin of an unknown pest inside a hole at the guilloche motif. Close-up of Fig. 3a (25X)
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Fig. 5 A lighter reddish brown is revealed at the area of missing chip at the rim. Tool marks remained on its uneven surface under raking light.
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Fig. 6a & 6b (Above) White accretion at the bottom under UV light; (Below) under visual examination
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Fig. 6c & 6d (Above) Weak green fluorescence at the bottom under UV light ; (Below) under visual examination (close up of Fig. 1f)
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Links
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