Conserving Damage: How Far Should We Go?

This poster examines the potential value of deliberate damage by removing the social and political biases attached to the Rokeby Venus. Instead we consider identical damage superimposed onto Monet's 1922 Water Lilies. Questions are posed on the longevity of the imagined Monet damage within the consciousness of the public. Artist Nicholas Middleton returns the damage to the Venus in his 'Restoration (2004-05)' and the reader is left to decide if damage, itself, can be valuable.