tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-54320535663868032862024-03-10T13:45:47.593+11:00Museum MusingsCurrent thoughts and directions in museum practice from around the world,
as selected by Julian Bickersteth.International Conservation Serviceshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12028628595627790857noreply@blogger.comBlogger197125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5432053566386803286.post-61721245078899146852016-10-21T16:13:00.000+11:002017-05-23T10:48:34.268+10:00The falsification of time<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Last month I attended the IIC Biannual Congress in Los
Angeles. Entitled <i>'Saving the Now; Crossing Boundaries to conserve
contemporary art' </i>it proved to be one of the most exciting conferences I
have been at for years.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Carole Mancusi Ungaro, Head of Conservation at the <a href="http://www.whitney.org/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cc0000;">Whitney Museum</span></a> of American Art in New York, kicked off in fine style to get us all deeply into the philosophy and ethics of
contemporary art conservation with her paper <i>‘The falsification of time’</i>. This
was a direct quote from an interview she undertook with Sol LeWitt in which
LeWitt proposed in reference to the cleaning of the Sistine Chapel that the artist
is not responsible for the falsification of time in how his artwork changes and
presents as it ages. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Carole used this to introduce the idea of preserving the
concept rather than the materiality of the artwork, which both releases
conservators from traditional restraints but also challenges them to approach
treatments in very different ways. Citing artists and artworks she has
worked with from Richard Serra to Cy Twombly, Carole explained the concept of
replication and co-creation that conservators now need to have in their
toolkit. If as she reminded us, the IIC Charter charges us to <i>‘take any action
necessary to halt the deterioration of artworks’</i>, then we do need to become
co-producers in ensuring these contemporary artworks are preserved, </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">either physically or conceptually</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">That means conservators now need to understand the
materiality of the artwork, know the technical issues, and be able to think
through its conceptual context. This is ambitious, challenging, complex and
exhilarating all at the same time.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Check out this <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/01/11/the-custodians-onward-and-upward-with-the-arts-ben-lerner" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cc0000;">article in the New Yorker</span></a> for more on this fascinating issue.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And to get a broader feeling for the conference check out
the <a href="https://www.iiconservation.org/congress/2016losangeles/blog" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cc0000;">IIC blog</span></a>. Hours of fascinating reading there.</span></div>
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Julian Bickerstethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05961308379200386694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5432053566386803286.post-64354969570245988942016-09-28T14:06:00.001+10:002017-05-23T10:48:52.967+10:00NZ Treaty Matters <div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">New
Zealand’s <i>Treaty of Waitangi</i>, </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">or to give it its Maori name <i>Te Tiriti o Waitangi,</i></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"> was signed at Waitangi on the North Island in </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">February </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">1840 between the British
settlers under Lieut<span style="background-color: white;">enant Governor William Hobson (when NZ was te</span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="background-color: white;">chnic</span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="background-color: white;">ally part
of New South Wales) and the Maori chiefs or rangatira. It is actually formed of
</span><span style="background-color: white;">nine sheets (the original and eight copies),</span></span></span></span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"> which were then variously taken around the country to be signed
by the rangatira. Eight copies are in Maori and one is in English.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">It
was meant to establish the fundamentals for land o</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">wnership, but its current condition (being variously rat eaten, fire and <span style="background-color: white;">water damaged) perhaps more accurately reflects the way it has been viewed since (the Treaty agreement was broken within six weeks of signing!).
This cartoon sums up one view of the Treaty’s value.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">However, 175 years on it is now viewed by both Maori and Pakeha (white people) as the
founding document of New Zealand, and one which reflects in a far deeper way
than the document itself how New Zealanders should live together. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Working
with the NZ Department of Internal Affairs over the last eighteen months, I
have been lucky enough to be involved in advising on the conservation issues of
a major new interpretive display of the document along with two other key New Zealand
historic documents; the 1835 Declaration of Independence of the Northern Chiefs
and the 1893 Women’s Suffrage Petition (did you know that NZ was the
first country in the world to allow women to vote?).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">It
all began with a big get together in Wellington at <a href="http://archives.govt.nz/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cc0000;">Archives New Zealand</span></a></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"> (</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">who have responsibility
for the care of the docu</span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="background-color: white;">ments,</span><span style="background-color: white;"> though the new display will be over the road in
the <a href="http://natlib.govt.nz/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cc0000;">National Library</span></a>). A</span></span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">nd it gave me a crash course on the political dimension of the Treaty as well as the opportunities this new exhibition provides. The purpose was to
allow as wide a range of stakeholders as possible to have their say in how the documents are presented. A neat forum was used to do this, namely by setting up nine</span>
tables with butcher’s paper and pens, each covering a different topic,
such as:</span></span></div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">What are the stories we should be telling?</span></span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">What will the
experience be like?</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">What do we
want our visitors to come away thinking?</span></li>
</ul>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">The
45 participants circulated in an ordered program, with constant discussion and
ideas bouncing back and forth, as one comment generated another thought. The session was interspersed with short five minute talks about
particular aspects of the documents, and I came away buzzing with the
opportunities </span><span style="background-color: white;">this pr</span><span style="background-color: white;">oject provides (and the complexities that arise as a
result). One nice idea I liked was to pose this </span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="background-color: white;">question to visitors: If they
were a rangatira, would they have signed then? And would they sign now?</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">One
aspect that became very clear in the planning from day one</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">was the embedment of the digital aspects of the
project. New Zealand has been a leader in the cultural
digital space, through<span style="background-color: white; color: #cc0000;"> <a href="http://www.digitalnz.org/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cc0000;">Digital New Zealand</span></a> </span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">ensuring a national
perspective through </span><span style="background-color: white;">gathering and interlinking the country’s culture digitally. And
this project showed me how they do it </span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #002060; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">– </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">H</span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">ow</span> this exhibition will be
experienced online; how it will link with the physical visit; how online teaching
materials are put </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">together; how new stories inspired by it online
are captured; and even how virtual reality technology may place visitors in the
historical event. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">The exhibition is due to open early next year and is going to be a game
changer in how to present and interpret a country’s most significant documents.</span></div>
Julian Bickerstethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05961308379200386694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5432053566386803286.post-61738696591243001502016-07-01T10:29:00.000+10:002017-05-23T10:49:10.973+10:00Walking on water Christo style<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">My colleague Matteo Volonté was on a quick visit to his
native Lombardy earlier this month and managed to catch the extraordinary art
event of the Christo installation on Lago d’Iseo. We had a chat this week when
he got back.</span> </div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Julian Bickersteth:</b> How
did people get there, given the crowds? </span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Matteo </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Volonté</span></b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>: </b>You could get there by many modes of
transport. You could go by train, car, bike and boat. The access to the piers
is in Sulzano near Iseo. The village of Sulzano is very small and could not
accommodate many vehicles, so designated car parks scattered on the outskirts
of the lake were used and shuttle buses collected visitors to take them to the
piers. People also walked from nearby villages.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>JB: </b>How
is it constructed? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>MV: </b>The piers were made of cubic barrels made of polyethylene
and joined together like a puzzle and connected with large polyethylene screws.
It was covered with approximately 100,000 square meters of
synthetic fabric and anchored to the bottom of the lake with ropes
and concrete blocks.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>JB:</b> What
did it feel like walking on? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>MV:</b> I believe Christo said it felt like walking on the
back of a whale. The movement of the lake gives definitely life to the
piers. Someone else said it is like walking on the water. Certainly being so
close to the water gives a wonderful effect.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>JB:</b> Was
it deteriorating? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>MV: </b>When I went to visit the Christo installation, it was just a
few days after the opening. The apparent condition of the fabric was fine. In
areas, staining began to appear particularly at the entrance of the piers and
where the fabric was covering the roads of the villages. Leaf litter and
floating tree branches were depositing along the edges of the piers, but it’s
something that should be expected. I did notice at the end of the day, towards
the exit, in some of the steep alleyways of Sulzano village, that the fabric
began to tear, particularly along the seams. That was because of the friction
of the visitors attempting to climb up the hill.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Enjoy Matteo’s beautiful pictures.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Julian Bickerstethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05961308379200386694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5432053566386803286.post-81567964579765421592016-06-03T11:11:00.000+10:002017-05-23T10:49:52.787+10:00Qatar cultural matters<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Abu Dhabi tends to get the lion’s share of attention
when it comes to museums in the Gulf due to the astonishing cultural precinct
being created on Saadiyat Island (see my <a href="http://bickersteth.blogspot.com.au/2012/10/abu-dhabi-museum-story.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cc0000;">past blog post</span></a> on the subject).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">However, just across the water Qatar is seeking to culturally
emulate their Gulf cousins. On the collecting front they have chosen to buy the world’s second and fourth most expensive artworks to date. (Respectively, Paul Cézanne’s "The </span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">C</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">ard Player</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">s"</span><span style="background-color: white;"> <span style="background-color: white;">for</span> </span><span style="background-color: white;">c.$250 million and Pablo Picasso’s
"Les Femmes d’Alger” </span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="background-color: white;">for</span><span style="background-color: white;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: white;">$179.3 million.) And</span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> they have</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> also</span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> been using
‘<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starchitect" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cc0000;">starchitects</span></a>’ to good effect.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So far they have an I.M. Pei designed <a href="http://www.mia.org.qa/en/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cc0000;">Museum of Islamic Art</span></a>,
which opened in 2008 and a Jean Nouvel <a href="http://www.qm.org.qa/en/project/national-museum-qatar" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cc0000;">National Museum</span></a> being built. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">The forme</span><span style="background-color: white;">r is a truly beautiful building, set on a spit of
reclaimed land with lush landscaping. Whi</span><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3;"><span style="background-color: white;">lst</span><span style="background-color: white;"> <span style="background-color: white;">to me the interior</span> </span></span><span style="background-color: white;">competes with the artefacts on display, which is always a temptation for
starchitects, the overall museum experience there is a very satisfying one.</span></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjw4a8JA-A0FliQpYaFZzmmeuPTwgtFHWC1nGEbXU3ZCwQdr8AjrvrAftK5rpTsmowN5lHwidnJq6CJabycUZx6ZjGSnnOYAD7sVbNkgSUVMcrdZkdG4O4wlew8Hqecb1SVwaoujtBQTx7q/s1600/Museum+of+Islamic+Art+Interior.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjw4a8JA-A0FliQpYaFZzmmeuPTwgtFHWC1nGEbXU3ZCwQdr8AjrvrAftK5rpTsmowN5lHwidnJq6CJabycUZx6ZjGSnnOYAD7sVbNkgSUVMcrdZkdG4O4wlew8Hqecb1SVwaoujtBQTx7q/s320/Museum+of+Islamic+Art+Interior.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Museum of Islamic Art, Qatar <br />(Showing interior competing with display of artefacts)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Half a mile away the National Museum struggles. Designed
around the concept of the desert rose, the building opening is already two
years late and it looks way off completion. Beautiful as it may end up being,
clearly the nature of a structure where there are no straight lines is taxing
the builders, not to mention the exhibition installers, once they can get
inside. But the big disappointment for me is that, whereas the Museum of
Islamic Art is well positioned away from other buildings and set in gardens, the
National Museum is squashed between a bridge and high rise development, an
aspect that the artist’s renditions fail to include.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">One other highlight of Qatar is Richard Serra’s
extraordinary and, </span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="background-color: white;">dare I say,</span><span style="background-color: white;"> somewhat bizarre 'East-West/West-East' installation. It takes about an hour driving west from Doha to reach </span><span style="background-color: white;">and comprises of 4 vast weathered steel
plates set into an obscure valley in the desert</span><span style="background-color: white;">, </span></span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">aligned in an east west direction over 1.6km.
Serra’s impetus for creating this piece is well detailed in the <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/richard-serra-in-the-qatari-desert" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cc0000;">New Yorker</span></a>.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">How successful this desert installation has turned out to be
is debatable. Serra had hoped that ‘people will either walk or drive to
the pieces’. The former is not only impractical but in Qatar conditions, downright dangerous. And sadly, where the latter is happening it seems only for
the pastime of applying graffiti. Interestingly, Serra’s hope of the weathered
steel turning to a dark amber is not being realised in the desert
conditions, an issue which is the subject of a technical paper at the
forthcoming <a href="https://www.iiconservation.org/congress" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cc0000;">IIC Conference</span></a> in LA in September on the conservation of
contemporary art.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgB2MTvGL88D_qRJ4JBh_45CWDO83T9gIAyb_DJ_bW-59S4Ja0MHWDyDrsEMAibfCJ2ZwwRE5-MZhsnLW2pfL41A7oyaBzvnuZXOmE5Y2p4Y1bbbbzw66iycdZDLzZiquNwh6gFHlvDfhC2/s1600/Richard+Serra+Qatar+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="252" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgB2MTvGL88D_qRJ4JBh_45CWDO83T9gIAyb_DJ_bW-59S4Ja0MHWDyDrsEMAibfCJ2ZwwRE5-MZhsnLW2pfL41A7oyaBzvnuZXOmE5Y2p4Y1bbbbzw66iycdZDLzZiquNwh6gFHlvDfhC2/s320/Richard+Serra+Qatar+3.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">'East-West/West-East' by Richard Serra</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">(Showing weathered steel corrosion not occurring as planned)</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Quite how the rapid development of all the new museums in
the Gulf will play out remains to be seen, but Qatar is ensuring it plays its
part.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
Julian Bickerstethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05961308379200386694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5432053566386803286.post-52091188207765076342016-04-19T16:58:00.000+10:002017-05-23T10:50:09.097+10:00Palmyra and clickbait<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Reporting on cultural heritage impacted by conflict is
never an easy matter. After the outrage of the death of Khaled al Assaad,
director of antiquities at Palmyra, last September I wrote a blog to highlight the level of
destruction that Isil was causing but decided in the end not to post it since it might impact on conservation
work we were undertaking in the UAE and on the staff we had there.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">However, at least Palmyra is now recaptured, and it's good to share a few links on what is happening. Firstly it
appears that despite the images of destruction beamed around the world, the
broader archaeological site has been largely spared, with the
site’s majestic amphitheater, rows of columns and other iconic ruins, whilst
laced with explosives by Isis, ultimately spared.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #aaaaaa; font-family: "fg book"; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As an interesting adjunct to my concerns about publishing
my blog earlier in the year, there is a great article</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> in<span style="color: #cc0000;"> <a href="http://theartnewspaper.com/comment/comment/lessons-from-palmyra-where-islamic-state-combined-iconoclasm-and-clickbait" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cc0000;">The Art Newspaper</span></a></span> by Jason Felch and Bastein Varoutsikos on how we should respond to the images of destruction of cultural heritage. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Their principal point is that the images of destruction
are 'clickbait' that play into Isil's hands every time we repost them. </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">"It
is Isil’s ability to marry ancient iconoclasm with modern clickbait that has
spread their appetite for destruction so far and fast. And it is our
fascination with sharing their snuff films on social media that make us
complicit in their crimes."</i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">More broadly, the latest bimonthly <a href="https://www.iiconservation.org/system/files/publications/journal/2016/b2016_2.pdf" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cc0000;">News in Conservation</span></a>
published by IIC (International Institute for Conservation) is dedicated to the
issue of the destruction and illegal trafficking of cultural heritage. It
provides a great overview of the issues and the wide spread nature of this ill,
from Timbuktu to Croatia, from Syria to Israel and Egypt.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As Peter Stone, the author of one of the articles and current head of UNESCO's <a href="http://www.ancbs.org/cms/en/home" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cc0000;">Blue Shield program</span></a> told me in January, the thing that changed interest in the UK in what
Isis was destroying (and the will to do something about it) was their
destruction of places that were so famous that even the blinkered public school
educated British bureaucrats had heard
of them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">To that end, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/borisjohnson/posts/10153184683041317" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cc0000;">Boris Johnson's Facebook posting</span></a> on Palmyra
and the desperate tragedy that is now Syria, along with the broader European
refugee crisis, is worth reading. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Palmyra may be safe for the time being, but we must not
forget that the UN reckons nearly 300 important Syrian sites have been
destroyed, badly damaged or looted since 2011, including 24 completely wiped out.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
Julian Bickerstethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05961308379200386694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5432053566386803286.post-64530568344976235762016-04-04T14:43:00.000+10:002017-05-23T10:50:21.677+10:00Big Boys at Te Papa 2<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As a supplement to my last blog post <a href="http://bickersteth.blogspot.com.au/2016/03/big-boys-at-te-papa.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cc0000;">'Big Boys at Te Papa'</span></a> on the Museum's 'Gallipoli: The scale of our war' </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">exhibition and my comment about the reported NZ casualty numbers, interesting research has
just been published</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">,</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> which confirms that the real rate is
about half what had been stated (see the <a href="http://blog.tepapa.govt.nz/2016/03/24/doubling-the-scale-of-our-war/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cc0000;">Te Papa blog</span></a> for more details). </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I had certainly come to a view that the casualty rate of 93%
would have been emblazoned on the minds and psyche of every New Zealander if it
were true. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">But what it has thrown up is that there were in fact casualty rates of
this level in the First War. The </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.heritage.nf.ca/first-world-war/articles/beaumont-hamel-en.php" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cc0000;">Newfoundland Regiment</span></a> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">went over the top a</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">t<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/remembrance/memorials/overseas/first-world-war/france/beaumonthamel/somme" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cc0000;">Beaumont-Hamel</span></a> in the Battle of the Somme, on that fateful day of July </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">1st </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">1916, where 30,0</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">00 men were killed or wounded before breakfast and 60,000 by the end of
the day. The Regiment went into action 753 strong and only 68
answered the roll call the next day, a casualty rate of 91%.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The
effect of such a loss on the local community must have been cataclysmic.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
Julian Bickerstethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05961308379200386694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5432053566386803286.post-75216801759665104112016-03-09T17:50:00.000+11:002016-03-09T17:53:41.445+11:00Big Boys at Te Papa<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I’ve been lucky enough to see quite a few WWI commemorative exhibitions around the world in the last couple of years, but
none as powerful as Te Papa’s <a href="http://www.gallipoli.tepapa.govt.nz/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cc0000;">'Gallipoli: The Scale of Our War'</span></a> exhibition in
Wellington.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Designed and built at a reputed cost of over $8 million by NZ film wunderkind and Weta Workshop founder, Richard Taylor, the
set and prop designer behind the Lord of the Rings epic. This is a hybrid
between a film set and a museum exhibition. The immediate reason I loved it is
the stunning 5 times life-size figures that dominate the space in every way.
They are masterful creations, the detailing simply awesome using every tool in
the film set maker’s kit. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpNok3HQgbsKbS40HXn6vPsM2SfiK6ifKV64_PYM5BWMYIb31fogNNkjJNa2NcnUcIVoWLYq7vB1QCDPe1mUSDzMfKt6KA8_ZFFsMkIhjEeT9DszSdZjxfyvolk3Evs1MkA4PvXTymLPWP/s1600/JB+Blog+-+Te+Papa+WWI+Exhibition.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpNok3HQgbsKbS40HXn6vPsM2SfiK6ifKV64_PYM5BWMYIb31fogNNkjJNa2NcnUcIVoWLYq7vB1QCDPe1mUSDzMfKt6KA8_ZFFsMkIhjEeT9DszSdZjxfyvolk3Evs1MkA4PvXTymLPWP/s320/JB+Blog+-+Te+Papa+WWI+Exhibition.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">But </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">w</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">hat I found
most refreshing </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">wa</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">s the approach to the
narrative. Instead of objects neatly labelled in showcases with storyboards on
adjacent walls, every available wall space </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">is
plastered with text and photos </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">in a highly accessible and read</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">ab</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">le way. You don’t need to work through all of
it, as there are lots of individual stories, but at the same time a con</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">tinuity</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> of </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">na</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">rrative</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">, based around the real stories of the over-size figures,
holds it all together and draws you on</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">. One bloke survives a death
sentence at a court martial </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">(for falling
asleep on duty) </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">only to turn up </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">later in the
exhibition</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> being killed </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">in action </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">four
days </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">afterwards</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">.<br /></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Why did I find it more emotional than others I have seen? </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It’s v</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">ery pe</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">rsonal</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">, </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">it </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">only
</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">tells </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">the Gallipoli story</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> from landing to evacuation</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">, </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">and it brings home better than any of the other
exhibitions </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">the </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">devastating </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">impact of the War on
so many families</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">in such a small country.<br /></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Which brings me to my one gripe.
The final storyboard identifies the NZ casualty rate as 93% of those who
landed were killed or wounded. An asterix beside the number leads to a footnote
along the lines of ‘still to be verified'. I was so struck by that astonishing
number that I went hunting. Two minutes on the web led me to the <span style="background: white;">1919
official history, <a href="http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-WaiNewZ-f6.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cc0000;">'The New Zealanders at Gallipoli'</span></a></span><span style="background: white;">, in which British General Sir Ian Hamilton
wrote that a total of 8556 New Zealanders landed on the peninsula – of whom 7447
were killed or wounded, a casualty rate of 87% (not 93% but still staggeringly
high). </span></span><span style="background: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A minute more and I was at the official <a href="http://ww100.govt.nz/how-many-new-zealanders-served-on-gallipoli" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cc0000;">NZ Government’s WWI centenary site</span></a> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">where </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">David Green, Historian at the Ministry for Culture & Heritage, explains that through erroneous counting the real </span><span style="background: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">New
Zealand casualty rate was 53%, similar to that of the Australians whom they
fought alongside.<br /></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="background: white;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I’ve raised this with Te Papa and they have advised
that research is still being undertaken, and they hope to have the final number
clarified shortly. </span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">But don’t let that stop you visiting a great
exhibition. </span></div>
</div>
Julian Bickerstethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05961308379200386694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5432053566386803286.post-51515060872745243682016-02-23T16:37:00.000+11:002017-05-23T10:50:46.816+10:00Conserving the Contemporary<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Conservators from around the world will be gathering in
September in LA at the biannual </span><a href="https://www.iiconservation.org/node/6190" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cc0000;">IIC (International Institute for Conservation) congress</span></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">. IIC congresses always have a theme and this year it is
Contemporary Art with the catchy title of '</span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Saving the Now: Crossing
Boundaries to Conserve Contemporary Works'. </i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As the Congress will
also be run in association with </span><a href="https://www.incca.org/" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cc0000;">INCCA</span></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> (International Network for the
Conservation of Contemporary Art) it promises to at least address if not resolve a few of the major issues
that conservators of contemporary art grapple with.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Conservation of contemporary art doesn’t sound like a main
stream subject, so it was good to see it addressed in a recent New Yorker
article by Tom Lerner, entitled <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/01/11/the-custodians-onward-and-upward-with-the-arts-ben-lerner" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cc0000;">'The Custodians: How the Whitney is transforming the art of museum conservation'</span></a>.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> Ostensibly about the Whitney’s new
conservation space and its head conservator Carol Mancusi-Ungaro, the
reflective and perceptive article cuts to the heart of the debate by:</span></span><br />
<ol>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Questioning why something that is contemporary needs
conservation </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Demonstrating the challenges that the complexities of the materials
and methods of fabrication of contemporary art create for conservators, and </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Showing how conservation is in Lerner’s words "deeply curatorial, as
conservators choose which aspects of a work are presented and how"</span></li>
</ol>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">He comes to the latter conclusion through observing
Mancusi-Ungaro at work, during which he discusses:</span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">T</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; text-indent: -18pt;">he problem of materials. Where medieval and
Renaissance painters had intimate knowledge of their pigments and what would
last, post war artists went to the hardware store not the art-supply shop for
their paint, using mass produced materials never intended to last. And that’s
only the paint, i.e. before considering the plastics, rubber, poor quality paper
etc. used with it.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; text-indent: -18pt;">The issue of replication in art. Mancusi-Ungaro
heads a replication committee at the Whitney which includes curators,
archivists and a lawyer which determines how a work of art (or part of it) should
be replicated when it cannot be restored in the traditional way. Examples might
be a motor or lights on a kinetic sculpture or a digital tape for an audio
installation.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; text-indent: -18pt;">Non-traditional methods of conservation. Lerner
cites Mancusi-Ungaro’s work on Rothko’s Harvard murals where the original
colour had faded right out beyond repair. She developed a series of coloured
light projections which when thrown on the canvases retuned the works to their
original colours – though, as Lerner questions, is this conservation or a multi
media installation?</span></li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Luckily, Mancusi-Ungaro is giving the Forbes Prize lecture at
the IIC Congress in LA, so we should hear more on this challenging issue then.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
Julian Bickerstethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05961308379200386694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5432053566386803286.post-19425603213052359842016-02-15T13:28:00.000+11:002017-05-23T10:51:01.436+10:00Protest Art – The Conservation Perspective<div class="Default">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Our favourite
non-artist Banksy (i.e. his real identity is unknown) has been busy again with
his satirical art, this time painting in his distinctive stencil style a Les
Mis themed image on a wall near the French Embassy in London criticising the
use of teargas in the ‘Jungle’ refugee camp in Calais. Whilst widely
reported (see this article in the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2016/jan/24/banksy-uses-new-artwork-to-criticise-use-of-teargas-in-calais-refugee-camp" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cc0000;">Guardian</span></a> and this one in the <a href="http://metro.co.uk/2016/01/25/new-banksy-appears-near-french-embassy-in-london-5642545" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cc0000;">Metro</span></a>) the story and images in the <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/pa/article-3415343/New-Banksy-Les-Miserables-mural-hits-use-teargas-Calais-Jungle-camp.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cc0000;">Daily Mail report</span></a> interested me most as a conservator.</span><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="Default">
<span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Banksy’s
images are always vulnerable to being graffitied, overpainted or destroyed as
they are invariably:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="Default" style="margin-left: 36.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: windowtext;">a)<span style="font-stretch: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: windowtext;">Protest art<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="Default" style="margin-left: 36.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: windowtext;">b)<span style="font-stretch: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: windowtext;">Painted on unprepared and often
temporary surfaces<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="Default" style="margin-left: 36.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="Default">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Sometimes that
destruction is inadvertent - As described in this <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/art-and-design/city-does-give-a-rats-for-banksys-wipedout-art-20100427-tq3c.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cc0000;">Sydney Morning Herald article</span></a>, Melbourne’s city street cleaners did a fine job painting over one,
and this in a city renowned for its street art!</span></div>
<br />
<div class="Default">
<span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">More often it
is an active process by the authorities being satirised to remove it. In the
London instance the artwork came with a QR code which linked to a tear gas
attack in the Calais refugee camp on 5<sup>th</sup> January, one which
presumably the French Government were not over-keen to have publicised, hence
their quiet word to their British counterparts to cover it up ASAP. </span></span><br />
<span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The irony
is that the British authorities claimed they were rushing to cover it up to
preserve it, the same argument the French authorities had taken with murals
Banksy had painted in the refugee camp itself. Which is where the Daily Mail
images are interesting, because it is clear both from the article and the
images that the first way they attempted to preserve it was by ripping it to
shreds with a crowbar, not a method which comes readily to mind in my toolkit
of preservation processes.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="Default">
<span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The next
question then is from a conservation point of view - what part of the artwork
should be conserved? To my mind the crowbar damage is now part of its story,
namely how the artwork was responded to, but the view could be put that this is
damage that needs repairing.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="Default">
<br /></div>
<div class="Default">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Luckily I can
report that this and other Protest Art issues will be the subject of a major
dialogue at the forthcoming <a href="https://www.iiconservation.org/congress/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cc0000;">IIC Congress in LA in September 2016</span></a> entitled
“Umbrellas, Gas Masks, and Post-it-Notes: Considering the historic and
conservation challenges of objects created for social protest”. The dialogue
will be in the form of a discussion between those who create the art and their
intent for it, and those who promote it, collect it and protect it. As the
blurb for the dialogue states:<span style="color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0);"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="Default">
<br /></div>
<div class="Default">
<span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">“Historic
events of the past years have highlighted art as a creative means of social
expression to current events as well as an impactful tool used during social
protests. Whether to express solidarity, such as <i>Je Suis Charlie</i>, or to
promote political freedom for the activists in Hong Kong, disobedient art has
found its presence in the world of artistic expression. The impact of
disobedient art on cultural perspectives has been tremendous and the historical
significance of using art to inspire and promote these events is gaining in
popularity.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="Default">
<br /></div>
<div class="Default">
</div>
<div class="Default">
<span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">There will be
lots to discuss. Make it to LA if you can.</span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
Julian Bickerstethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05961308379200386694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5432053566386803286.post-69136142686084812632016-01-14T12:48:00.003+11:002017-05-23T10:51:44.602+10:00Seen any missing sculptures?<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It is a truism often cited that the period of 30 - 50
years after creation is the time when any artwork or building is most at risk
of being destroyed. It has lost the novelty of being new and fallen out of fashion but has not yet entered into
that hallowed world of being anointed with heritage status. Great art and
buildings tend to transcend this dangerous period, but that leaves an awful lot
of our artistic and architectural output which is vulnerable. Some of
this of course deserves a quick and timely departure, whether due to poor
design or materials that would never last. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So it is not surprising to read
that <a href="https://historicengland.org.uk/"><span style="color: #cc0000;">Historic England</span></a>, formerly part of English Heritage, have complied a <a href="http://artdaily.com/news/83701/Help-find-missing-public-art--Organisation-asks-public-to-help-uncover-missing-pieces-#.VpSbwPl95hE"><span style="color: #cc0000;">list of lost, stolen, sold or destroyed public art works</span></a> made anywhere between the
Second World War and the 1980s. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Some we know about, such as the Henry Moore bronze Reclining
Figure stolen from the </span><a href="https://www.henry-moore.org/hmf" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #cc0000;">Henry Moore Foundation</span></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">'s estate in 2005 worth £3m, which
was melted down and sold for £1,500 as scrap metal. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Some are the victims of political correctness. Countless figures of Lenin have
been dismembered since Glasnost. And closer to home, Sydney is the beneficiary of
a fine seated figure of Queen Victoria,
which had been removed for political reasons from
Leinster House in Dublin during the Troubles and, after languishing in a council
depot in Dublin for many years, was transported to Sydney to take pride of place
outside the refurbished Queen Victoria
Building in the 1980s. A similar discussion is going
on right now about the figure of Cecil Rhodes on Oriel College, Oxford. A
current Rhodes scholar no less (talk about biting the hand that feeds you) is
leading the <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/inquirer/oxfords-oriel-college-pc-warriors-are-crossing-cecil-rhodes/news-story/257b556e79166151be5538e9af7956f9"><span style="color: #cc0000;">campaign to have his statue removed</span></a> on the basis that Rhodes was
responsible for genocide.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisKnIUGsi7WKbG8sBMXd2NRZdF2FjzmMKO0eGDizKgPz2gDh4AqTLosUXrpxSlafSDEpd2UJFpJ9QZqlEtwRCCS31yp-adW5d-3RmszRxt9F_aDYU5FQEUj10XEKx0l_J8tvhJsOyd1p81/s1600/Queen+Victoria+Statue+QVB.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="260" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisKnIUGsi7WKbG8sBMXd2NRZdF2FjzmMKO0eGDizKgPz2gDh4AqTLosUXrpxSlafSDEpd2UJFpJ9QZqlEtwRCCS31yp-adW5d-3RmszRxt9F_aDYU5FQEUj10XEKx0l_J8tvhJsOyd1p81/s320/Queen+Victoria+Statue+QVB.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Queen Victoria Statue, Queen Victoria Building, Sydney</span></span></div>
</div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Some have only just survived, Mary
Kayser's 'Dragonfly' in Canberra being a case in point. Created in 1989 (so it
doesn’t even reach 30 years before it was disdained), it was deteriorating badly, obscured behind trees and about
to be destroyed. The ACT Government commendably decided it was worthy of
saving, and we were commissioned to restore
and relocate it to a prime site on Lake Burley Griffin.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwmNIeSiY3MSI-SL1Qu6pjyGBWYrSt1uHRvS_1Es3WDcA1602eRq322VDK3fnYuF_fWeFnvejEOqHV_xFQzK4FOu2mwOz9khbicNtPUdG_ZKsJMocDej33z56m3vi31f6XsrHLb5pjVnvN/s1600/Mary+Kayser%2527s+Dragonfly+-+Obscured+behind+trees.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwmNIeSiY3MSI-SL1Qu6pjyGBWYrSt1uHRvS_1Es3WDcA1602eRq322VDK3fnYuF_fWeFnvejEOqHV_xFQzK4FOu2mwOz9khbicNtPUdG_ZKsJMocDej33z56m3vi31f6XsrHLb5pjVnvN/s320/Mary+Kayser%2527s+Dragonfly+-+Obscured+behind+trees.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Mary Kayser's 'Dragonfly' - Obscured behind trees</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZNBQwUh6RUT941oN4SgZKDyAws4Q5X8yq9to-_EG2CA-3OZJ9PBkRrAyDyqkRh_RSMl5jlMtBQib_Ikel0k7D4si1GbLBBaz43PwnCZehV2NBHmn6yMDSp8a0eOHrz5eKt3JGb5uvwWGS/s1600/Mary+Kayser%2527s+Dragonfly+-+Restored+and+relocated.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZNBQwUh6RUT941oN4SgZKDyAws4Q5X8yq9to-_EG2CA-3OZJ9PBkRrAyDyqkRh_RSMl5jlMtBQib_Ikel0k7D4si1GbLBBaz43PwnCZehV2NBHmn6yMDSp8a0eOHrz5eKt3JGb5uvwWGS/s320/Mary+Kayser%2527s+Dragonfly+-+Restored+and+relocated.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Mary Kayser's 'Dragonfly' - Restored and relocated</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">But then of course if you want to avoid the angst as an
artist of having your creation destroyed you can do what Bert Flugelman
did and bury the art work in the first place so no one can get to it. As part
of an arts festival in Canberra in 1975,
Bert participated by burying his artwork made of six polished aluminium
tetrahedrons, remarking that if he explained why he was putting the piece
underground “the whole point would be lost”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Now there’s both an artistic statement and a pretty foolproof way
of ensuring your legacy survives!</span></div>
Julian Bickerstethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05961308379200386694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5432053566386803286.post-4519398321682559532015-11-02T16:36:00.000+11:002017-05-23T10:52:31.568+10:00Flying boats and the way to travel by air in the 1950's <div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">There was a time after the Second War when civilian aviation relied heavily on flying boat travel. No need for runways, just find a convenient strip of water (preferably not too choppy) and in can come the sea plane. Nowhere was this more enthusiastically embraced than in the Pacific, and I have just spent the last three days in New Zealand preparing conservation plans for two survivors of this era.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br />These are the Short and Harland Solent flying boats that flew the Coral Route between NZ, Fiji, Tonga and Samoa. Whether they were actually a plane that could float, or a boat that could fly (and does it really matter, though they were all formally launched like a ship), these extraordinary machines as large as a two storey house still have the capacity to thrill.</span><br />
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<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Upstairs a massive flight deck had a pilot and co-pilot with a navigator and radio operator behind and the all-important flight engineer who sat in front of a vast console of dials and levers, spending the whole flight moving fuel between tanks to keep the plane trimmed.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCsGSjdDFXQNtfs2owm2Gafczg2fjnwCLC6LRJPvZ2sNtqAwgItNHGYPYlZGBb3oPB_b2i-4mnWmyzTlkmXYmPiKRA_n-X71dpSLFtmR1yi20RjM13JK_Al_pxu9Fr0CEEZS6p_1h5Z0R0/s1600/IMG_9592.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCsGSjdDFXQNtfs2owm2Gafczg2fjnwCLC6LRJPvZ2sNtqAwgItNHGYPYlZGBb3oPB_b2i-4mnWmyzTlkmXYmPiKRA_n-X71dpSLFtmR1yi20RjM13JK_Al_pxu9Fr0CEEZS6p_1h5Z0R0/s320/IMG_9592.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Behind them was a galley with a full cooking oven and a food lift to move food between floors and a cabin for 20 passengers. Downstairs were a further 18 travellers in three cabins plus a ladies powder room and gents toilet. This was luxury travel of a kind not seen again until Etihad introduced showers on their 380s, though I suspect the noise and vibration levels were rather different with four enormous prop engines just outside the window.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br />And of course landing on water though convenient has some inherent hazards, not least steering in high winds and a strong swell without a rudder. Pilots had to be adept seaman as well as aviators, resorting at times to using sea anchors thrown out each side by crewman to be able to reach the mooring buoy. Then the buoy had to be caught by a crewman leaning out of the front of the aircraft with a boat hook. Not much fun in a rough sea, the record apparently being 37 attempts before the buoy was finally secured. You can see why they did not land at night.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br />What makes the collection at the <a href="http://www.motat.org.nz/"><span style="color: #cc0000;">Museum of Transport and Technology</span></a> (MOTAT) unique is that they have alongside the Solent, the military version known as the Sunderland. Gone are the internal luxuries and in their place instead a stripped out airframe bristling with depth charges and guns (nicknamed 'flying porcupines' by the U boat crews, who were their primary prey). There are only seven of these aircraft left in the world and to have these two civilian and military examples alongside each other is an amazing experience.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Currently, both flying boats are in the process of restoration, but they will shortly be on display in MOTAT's aviation display hall. Throw in a Lancaster and a mosquito bomber which sit alongside them, and any trip to Auckland should include MOTAT where even a moderate aviation enthusiast will come away enthralled.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br />In reality, although the 1950's was the prime time for these graceful birds, the Second War had already killed them off due to so many airfields being established and the design of planes that could carry much larger loads. By the late 50s the pressurised Constellations were taking over with twice the number of passengers at twice the speed and half the cost, to be followed shortly thereafter by the first civilian jets, the Comets.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A rare relic of a brief period in aviation history.</span></div>
Julian Bickerstethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05961308379200386694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5432053566386803286.post-43517742371080222662015-10-12T12:48:00.000+11:002017-05-23T10:52:50.498+10:00Bowie, ACMI and the Verbaliser<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I’ve finally cracked my long standing inability
to understand song lyrics – I’ve discovered most of them are nonsensical
anyway! This revelation comes courtesy of the V&A’s exhibition on David
Bowie currently showing at The Australian Centre for the Moving Image
(<a href="https://www.acmi.net.au/"><span style="color: #cc0000;">ACMI</span></a>) in Federation Square, Melbourne.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background: white;">From the early 1970s Bowie conceived of an idea
of mixing random phrases together mostly taken from short news clips. He co-authored a smart piece of software known as ‘the Verbaliser’ which
rearranges words to make this happen and create some of his lyrics. I
think the technical term is ‘cut-ups’ and it’s a technique that went on to
influenc</span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">e</span> <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_Cobain" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">Kurt Cobain</span>'s</span></a> son</span><span style="background: white;">gwriting</span><span style="background: white;">.
I guess we would call it a mash up these days, but one of the highlights of the
exhibition for me was hearing Bowie talk about how he used words in this
way. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background: white;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Whilst this is not an exhibition I would have
rushed to see based on its subject matter, I came away having thoroughly
enjoyed it and seeing Bowie in a completely new light as an extraordinarily
creative person. It’s slick and well presented, with a clever Sennheiser audio system (headphones are provided as part of the ticket price) that responds to where you
are by playing songs and information relevant to what you are viewing. There’s a great review at <a href="http://dotsanddashes.co.uk/features/joining-the-dots-david-bowie-is"><span style="color: #cc0000;">dotsanddashes.co.uk</span></a>. Sadly, I understand Sennheiser is not interested in replicating the system for other exhibitions.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background: white;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This is all part of a big V&A push into
Australia with no less than three of their exhibitions currently touring, <i>David
Bowie is….</i> at ACMI, <i>Undressed</i> at the Powerhouse, and soon the
Queensland Museum and Bendigo Art Gallery and <i>Inspiration by Design</i>
currently at the State Library of NSW and soon to be at the State Library of
Victoria.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background: white;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">ACMI is a bit of a hidden performer in
Australia's cultural sector. It's been around now for over ten years in its
current location, though it actually dates back to 1946 as the Victoria State
Film Institute. In 2013 it attracted over 1.15 million visitors. That's
an impressive statistic, and based on the current offerings it deserves to do
well, and can only play a bigger role. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background: white;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This is going to be significantly helped by the
recent appointment of Seb Chan to a newly created role of CXO - Chief
Experience Officer - a position he takes up this month, returning from 4 years
in New York at the Cooper Hewitt, where he was the Director of Digital &
Emerging Media, and the lead player in the development of their new interactive
pen (see my blog from <a href="http://bickersteth.blogspot.ca/2015/06/conference-time-and-museum-of-future.html"><span style="color: #cc0000;">June 2015</span></a> for more information). </span></span><span style="background: white;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Listed in 2009 as amongst Australia’s 100 most
influential people (see my blog from <a href="http://bickersteth.blogspot.com.au/2009/01/seb-chan-person-of-influence.html"><span style="color: #cc0000;">January 2009</span></a>), </span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Seb is not going to sit quietly in his new
role. Watch the ACMI space!</span></div>
Julian Bickerstethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05961308379200386694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5432053566386803286.post-83660369979124574562015-09-18T12:44:00.000+10:002017-05-23T10:53:15.749+10:00London offerings<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">London is
always offering up challenging new art installations, and though it may not be
the centre of the universe for contemporary art aficionados, it manages to
regularly juxtapose the old with the new in exciting ways.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I hot footed it to two such artworks this week, with
mixed results. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In the fabulous
plaster court at the <span style="color: #cc0000;"><a href="http://www.vam.ac.uk/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cc0000;">V&A</span></a> </span><span style="color: #444444;">there </span>is an installation entitled 'The Tower of
Babel', in the form of a 6 metre cone of nearly three
thousand ceramic houses with photographic images of street fronts on them. It
sounded sort of interesting, but, well it sort of wasn't, failing for me to engage in
anyway with the rather bemused statues around it. Perhaps I can cite the label to explain why I
moved on rather smartly: "Barford playfully likens our efforts to find
fulfilment through retail to the biblical Tower of Babel's attempt to reach
heaven. His seemingly precarious Tower poses questions about our society and
economy, celebrating London's retailers, yet exposing the divide between rich
and poor." <a href="https://www.mona.net.au/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cc0000;">MONA</span> </a>has a word for such stuff.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">'The Tower of Babel' at the V&A</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Down the road however, the great Ai Weiwei has installed
half a dozen massive trees in the forecourt of the <a href="https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cc0000;">Royal Academy</span></a>, and the
juxtaposition of that rich 18th century Palladian mansion and these stark
bolted leaf-less limbs is breathtaking. They are part of a major retrospective
exhibition, and alright perhaps I am a little biased, because I haven't washed
my hands since I found the great man himself wandering around and shook his
hand, but others seem to agree (see this article published in the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/sep/14/ai-weiwei-royal-academy-review-momentous-and-moving" style="color: #cc0000;" target="_blank">Guardian</a>).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Tree sculptures by Ai Weiwei </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">installed in the courtyard of the Royal Academy of Arts, London</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">What is particularly interesting about the trees is that
their inclusion in the exhibition only came about through crowdsourcing.
Working with <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/royalacademy/bring-ai-weiweis-tree-sculptures-to-londons-royal/description" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cc0000;">Kickstarter</span></a>, the Royal Academy raised 123,500 pounds from 1,319
backers, all of whom are listed on two great banners as you go up the main
stairs.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Inspirational on two fronts - the art itself, and the
action by which it came to be in London.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
Julian Bickerstethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05961308379200386694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5432053566386803286.post-13204970411925318932015-09-15T16:52:00.000+10:002017-05-23T10:53:46.059+10:00Crystal time at the Australian Museum<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The <a href="http://australianmuseum.net.au/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cc0000;">Australian Museum</span></a> has a new entrance, built in double
quick time by its dynamic new director Kim McKay.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Named the 'Crystal Hall' for reasons of both its design and
its ability to house the Museum's outstanding collection of crystals, it was
opened last week by the Premier of NSW. Interestingly, this is where the entrance was always meant
to be, instead of the slightly awkward entrance from College Street, which has
been the way in for the last 150 years. And to emphasize this, the Museum has changed its street address to No 1
William Street - neat marketing.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">The Australian Museum's new Crystal Hall entrance</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The closure of the College Street entrance has allowed
the realisation of the original concept for the entrance area, namely as a
major gallery. And the result is spectacular, with truly one of the great
internal public spaces in Sydney revealed as it was originally intended. For
years this space has been a mixture of cafe, shop and entrance way, dominated
by the blue whale skeleton to remind visitors this is predominantly a natural
history museum.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The blue whale remains but now beneath it is the new <a href="http://australianmuseum.net.au/landing/wild-planet/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cc0000;">'Wild Planet' exhibition</span></a> displaying the Museum's taxidermy collection with specimens
large and small. My favourite exhibition on this theme is the <a href="https://www.mnhn.fr/fr" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cc0000;">Paris <span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18.2px;">Muséum </span>National d'Histoire Naturelle's</span></a> 'Gallery of Evolution', which first kicked off the concept of using
stuffed animals in an artistic rather than wholly naturalistic way, though I
also love the <a href="http://museumvictoria.com.au/melbournemuseum/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cc0000;">Melbourne Museum's</span></a> 'Amazing Animals'. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This is however a beautifully presented exhibition and space helped by two spectacular vault ceilinged glass cases (vitrines for the initiated) made by the doyen of such creations, <a href="http://www.goppion.com/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cc0000;">Goppion</span></a> of Milan. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Take a walk on the wild side and enjoy a buzzing museum.</span></div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
Julian Bickerstethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05961308379200386694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5432053566386803286.post-12274486835037407432015-07-07T10:47:00.000+10:002017-05-23T10:54:18.652+10:00Canterbury Museum Tales<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">I was delighted
to be back in Christchurch last week for the first time since the 2011
earthquake, not least to find one of my favourite museums, the<span style="color: #cc0000;"> <a href="http://www.canterburymuseum.com/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cc0000;">Canterbury Museum</span></a></span>, virtually unscathed and bustling with visitors. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Why one of my
favourites? Well first up must be that it is unique, as far as I know, in
having a delightfully obscure biblical text from the book of Job inscribed over
its main entrance, <i>"L</i></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><i>o these are parts of His ways but how little a portion
is heard of Him".</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Secondly, it has
one of the world’s greatest Antarctic collections from the Heroic Era, in which
pride of place must go to the vehicles. There is a wheel from the Arroll
Johnston motor car that Shackleton took on his 1907-09 expedition in which he
hoped to cruise to the Pole at a modest 25mph. There is the extraordinary
plywood boxed motor tractor that was used on Shackleton’s second expedition,
with skis at the front and a big paddle wheel at the back (remember that the
tank had not yet been invented). This vehicle proved far more trouble than it was worth, and vastly less efficient than the humble Manchurian pony and huskie.
And then there are the two vehicles that featured front of stage in the Trans
Antarctic Expedition of 1957/8 - Vivian Fuchs’ lumbering great snowcat, and
right beside it the canvas wrapped cab of one of Edmund Hillary’s’ converted
Ferguson tractors. Each set off from opposite sides of the continent, and what
an epic story it was as they fought their way to the South Pole. You will have
to read the best book on the expedition to find out who (sort of) won or
check out my blog from <a href="http://bickersteth.blogspot.com.au/2015/03/antarctic-matters.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cc0000;">March 2015</span></a>. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGKmtxxW_EQ32eG1-kvtxcBNYlsPk9NgoMnVJneVJY2Z3AJXu1ZmLocgQ3jlNTizy7RHRC3-dgZswveTD8Zyj14I-Bd5M-Ab6kIL4lkXyJXeRINBfBg70jYPS5847qEF8hkaDpWNqHd0Rs/s1600/Fuchs+Snow+Cat.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGKmtxxW_EQ32eG1-kvtxcBNYlsPk9NgoMnVJneVJY2Z3AJXu1ZmLocgQ3jlNTizy7RHRC3-dgZswveTD8Zyj14I-Bd5M-Ab6kIL4lkXyJXeRINBfBg70jYPS5847qEF8hkaDpWNqHd0Rs/s320/Fuchs+Snow+Cat.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Fuchs' Snowcat with Hillary's Ferguson tractor behind</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Thirdly, the
Museum has some very fine dioramas. The film <i>Night at the Museum</i> (and its endless successors) largely works through the scenes where its dioramas come alive. They were actually invented by Louis Daguerre (he
of the Daguerreotype), and became in the early part of the 20th century a common museum technique for showing an historical event or a natural
history scene. At their best they can impart a highly realistic view; the battle scenes in the <a href="https://www.awm.gov.au/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cc0000;">Australian War Memorial’s</span></a> World War One Galleries (see my
blog from <a href="http://bickersteth.blogspot.com.au/2015/04/seated-in-sun-outside-marrickville-town.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cc0000;">April 2015</span></a>)
providing a point of access for the visitors that few other mediums can
provide. The fact they survive in so many museums is a testament to their
interpretive power. At the Canterbury Museum they are principally used to
depict pre-colonial Maori life and bird scenes. Both types in their own
way are spectacular, notable because of the quality of the artwork. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJybnYEmjq5bcPZNOvO4nWQIBaqeTYnl0Vrz1BiVfyYLF7okxEe8xO18zQE_O2CHPZqQxRdTebEGwZtvfi7LxjmsNWuSbV60NWXLM7ENG3OGf4S-Nvvx0loyXv_Wnu-nAbUF0BB2WN6D9W/s1600/Canterbury+Mus+Diorama.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJybnYEmjq5bcPZNOvO4nWQIBaqeTYnl0Vrz1BiVfyYLF7okxEe8xO18zQE_O2CHPZqQxRdTebEGwZtvfi7LxjmsNWuSbV60NWXLM7ENG3OGf4S-Nvvx0loyXv_Wnu-nAbUF0BB2WN6D9W/s320/Canterbury+Mus+Diorama.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">One of the Canterbury Museum dioramas</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">So, when you
are next in South Island, New Zealand do take time to visit the Museum – it’s a
real treat.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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Julian Bickerstethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05961308379200386694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5432053566386803286.post-68532852089741725442015-06-18T14:45:00.001+10:002017-05-23T10:54:52.560+10:00What museums need to learn from the social aspects of the digital revolution<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Fascinating talk at Remix Sydney recently by Dr Genevieve
Bell, the Australian born cultural anthropologist and now director of the User
Experience Group at Intel. Her talk responded to the question 'how will the
technological revolution going on outside the walls of cultural institutions
transform the environment in which we operate?''</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Genevieve talked to the dichotomy we are dealing with on
six issues:</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
</div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Connectivity:</b> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We want to be
connected all the time and get to where we want online instantly but we also
want to be able to disconnect and have our own space. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This leads into;</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Privacy: </b>We
want to share information and images all the time, but we also really worry
about our reputations and what people make of us. We particularly worry </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">about what has been collected in the
past which might surface in the future, and interestingly the current
generation (millennials) worry about it most.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Big data:</b>
We all want more data as we think it will tell us more truths. In reality data
is only as good as the data fed into it, and since we inherently tell lies a
lot of the </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">time ("</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">you look great today" etc.), it's
often not good data. We advocate transparency in others and yet jealously guard
our secrets.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Algorithms:</b>
Algorithms are required to make sense of big data, but are</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">all based on what has happened in the
past.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The surprising thing about so much
data is how</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">poorly we predict what it
will tell us.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Memory and
storage:</b> The world is building unlimited storage and therefore memory - soon
nothing will be forgotten. Yet as humans we are conditioned to (and</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">indeed need to) forget some things in
order to be able to move on.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We should
remember the big stories (e.g. the Stolen Generation), but we need to be able to
forget </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">the little stories about how
we may have behaved with each other.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Innovation:
</b>We crave new technology and are culturally wired to consider it as a good
thing, as a mark of the progress of humanity.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">However, we also fear it because </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">we are conditioned by books and films that human hubris will overwhelm
us, and the technology will go feral and kill us.</span></li>
</ul>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Genevieve concluded by advising us to weigh up new tech
solutions against the following criteria:</span></div>
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</div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">They must be market inspired, solving problems that we
care about</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">They must be experience driven, delivering experiences
we want</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">They must be people centric, acknowledging that we are
human and by our very nature a mass of contradictions</span></li>
</ul>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As the museum sector continues to grapple with new technologies and how to use them, this is salutary advice from someone right at the heart of the social dimension and impact of these technologies.</span></div>
Julian Bickerstethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05961308379200386694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5432053566386803286.post-14232713731424095962015-06-05T16:28:00.001+10:002017-05-23T10:55:26.753+10:00Conference time and the museum of the future<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Back to back conferences on like themes are always
interesting, if only to see how much stamina is required to keep engaged. Sydney has just hosted the <a href="http://www.ma2015.org.au/index.asp?IntCatId=14" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cc0000;">Museums Australia Conference</span></a>,
followed by <a href="http://www.remixsummits.com/syd/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cc0000;">Remix Sydney</span></a>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The former is self explanatory, the annual get together of
the local museum fraternity, always useful for catching up with old friends and
meeting new ones, but this year a bit predictable and uninspiring in
programming and discussions. Highlights for me were:</span></div>
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</div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; text-indent: -18pt;">Xerxes Mazda, formerly of the <a href="http://www.britishmuseum.org/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cc0000;">British Museum</span></a>,
currently at the <a href="http://www.rom.on.ca/en" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cc0000;">Royal Ontario Museum</span></a> and about to be head of collections
for <a href="http://www.nms.ac.uk/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cc0000;">National Museums of Scotland</span></a>. Xerxes is always worth listening to on how
to maximise </span><span style="background: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; text-indent: -18pt;">the visitor experience, by integrating exhibitions,
education, web, publications, design, front of house, visitor research,
marketing, membership, volunteers and programming.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; text-indent: -18pt;">Mega museum project updates with Gunther
Schauerte from the </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; text-indent: -18pt;"><a href="http://www.sbs-humboldtforum.de/en/Home/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cc0000;">Humboldt Forum</span></a></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; text-indent: -18pt;"> in Berlin and Michael Lynch on </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; text-indent: -18pt;"><a href="http://www.westkowloon.hk/en/mplus" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cc0000;">M+</span></a></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; text-indent: -18pt;">
in the West Kowloon Cultural District, Hong Kong. Large though these are,
we should not forget the <a href="http://museum.wa.gov.au/community/content/new-museum-project" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cc0000;">New Museum</span></a> that is arising in Western Australia. I
blogged about this when it was announced in <a href="http://bickersteth.blogspot.com.au/search/label/WA%20Museum" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cc0000;">July 2012</span></a></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; text-indent: -18pt;">,
and amazingly the monies ($428m) still seem to be there and the project is
gaining significant momentum with an opening scheduled in 2020. </span></li>
</ul>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I gave a paper boldly entitled 'Conservation in Museums –
Whereto from here?', inspired by my own perception of the journey that
conservation worldwide has undergone between the ICOM CC Conference in Sydney
in 1987 and 27 years on the same conference in <span style="color: #cc0000;"><a href="http://www.icom-cc2014.org/" target="_blank">Melbourne</a> </span>in 2014.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And interestingly it was Remix that turned out to be in many
ways a more appropriate forum for this discussion with the first session
asking ‘What functions of museums are best served by external providers?’ Remix
is a series of global summits on the future of cultural industries currently
taking place annually in London, New York City, Dubai and Sydney, which aims to
pull together cultural leaders, corporate directors, technologists and
entrepreneurs.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It was a buzzy place to be around, reinforcing how the world
of social media is fracturing at an ever increasing pace. With ever more
platforms and media to share content on, the move to video as a medium, and
mobile as the principal point of access, museums are scrambling to understand how to respond. Inevitably the focus on providing digital content
continues to drive decision making on funding, but with it came reinforcement
of the urge to see and value the real thing that is continuing to bring people
into cultural institutions in increasing numbers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Pick of the conference for me was Seb Chan’s keynote on
the Future of Museums. Seb was at the <a href="http://maas.museum/powerhouse-museum/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cc0000;">Powerhouse Museum</span></a> in Sydney for many
years before taking up the role of Head of Digital and Emerging Media at the <a href="http://www.cooperhewitt.org/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cc0000;">Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum</span></a> in New York, which has just reopened after a $81
million refurb. Described in the Atlantic as the <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/01/how-to-build-the-museum-of-the-future/384646/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cc0000;">museum of the future</span></a>,
Seb has lead the charge at the Cooper Hewitt on integrating the digital
and the real seamlessly. He and his team have done this by ensuring:</span></div>
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</div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; text-indent: -18pt;">Everything on exhibition is also online, i.e.
not just a representative proportion</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; text-indent: -18pt;">The online data provides a rich array of extra
information, so <span style="background-color: white;">offers </span>significant extra value that can be accessed later</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; text-indent: -18pt;">Visitors select objects they find interesting by
touching the label with an interactive pen they are provided with on entry</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; text-indent: -18pt;">These selections are then downloaded upon exit
and can be accessed, researched and manipulated at home via a unique url
on each ticket</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; text-indent: -18pt;">No time consuming downloading of an app, pre
visit or upon arrival</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; text-indent: -18pt;">No privacy issues over requiring an email
address</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; text-indent: -18pt;">This is a REALLY NEAT solution</span></li>
</ul>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">What I came away with is that we are now seeing the next
iteration of visitor access through technology, the leader until now being <span style="color: #cc0000;"><a href="http://www.mona.net.au/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cc0000;">MONA</span></a> </span>and the O. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The ground breaking nature of the O is reflected in how long
it has taken to see it superseded, but look to the Cooper Hewitt for the future
of this aspect of museums. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Read all about it at <a href="http://mw2015.museumsandtheweb.com/paper/strategies-against-architecture-interactive-media-and-transformative-technology-at-cooper-hewitt/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cc0000;">Museums and the Web 2015</span></a>. </span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<o:p></o:p></div>
Julian Bickerstethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05961308379200386694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5432053566386803286.post-76501993293575900462015-05-21T11:59:00.000+10:002017-05-23T10:55:59.450+10:00Conservation recognition and the Gilbert Doble story<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I blogged a few
weeks ago about the <a href="http://bickersteth.blogspot.com.au/2015/04/seated-in-sun-outside-marrickville-town.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cc0000;">Marrickville Winged Victory conservation project</span></a> and I am delighted to report that our work won a National Trust Heritage Award
at last Wednesday’s Award presentations.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">What is
interesting about the project is that we still have not worked out how Gilbert
Doble made his sculptures. A local Marrickville lad, he was clearly a bit of an
oddball. At a time when any significant bronze
foundry work had to be sent to England, he developed a home grown </span><span style="background: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">electro-deposition process </span><span style="background: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">that </span><span style="background: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">he perfected himself in his own studio</span><span style="background: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> in his
back garden in Marrickville</span><span style="background: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">. </span><span style="background: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Even after we have been intimately involved with the Winged
Victory w</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">e </span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">still </span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">c</span></span><span style="background: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">an’t quite work out how he did it.</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOM932VAo_CwbHuaM8cRXwMjwBXJP_YYGd_KVFNsv0LtZ6tvOFcAdENUntckhUYP7RwR-q-r2C1OhNVUHQbZolt_b2hYyjlyJbc1i6K74zcXqxA8zsWGwnHg9PWdhjDRxSr2mE6psdOkdW/s1600/Winged+Victory+-+DT+%25282%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="242" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOM932VAo_CwbHuaM8cRXwMjwBXJP_YYGd_KVFNsv0LtZ6tvOFcAdENUntckhUYP7RwR-q-r2C1OhNVUHQbZolt_b2hYyjlyJbc1i6K74zcXqxA8zsWGwnHg9PWdhjDRxSr2mE6psdOkdW/s320/Winged+Victory+-+DT+%25282%2529.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">The Winged Victory conservation team </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">inspecting the sculpture</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background: white;"><br /></span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background: white;">The interesting thing is
that, despite the failure </span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">of </span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">his </span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">Winged Victory </span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">sculpture </span></span><span style="background: white;">(it only lasted 40 years
before coming apart at the seams and needing to be brought down for safety
reasons), his other public sculptures have lasted well. These include
</span><span style="background: white;">the <span style="color: #cc0000;"><a href="http://monumentaustralia.org.au/themes/people/discovery/display/20248-george-evans" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cc0000;">Evans Memorial</span></a> </span>in Bathurst, notable according
to the local guidebook for “its respectful depiction of an Aboriginal man
crouched at Evans' knee - representing one of the Aboriginals who acted as a
guide for Evans on his surveys.” </span></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background: white;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background: white;">As well as Winged Victory, Doble was
also commissioned to undertake two </span><span style="background: white;">other memorials, for Wellington and
Pyrmont. At a time when war memorials were either a block of stone or had a
soldier atop them, his approach was distinctive, avoiding the militaristic
nature of such and concentrating on the mix of grief and motherly support to
the fallen that his female figures depicted.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="background: white;">Pyrmont War Memorial</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A fun side
story of this project is that it has all been filmed as part of a 5 part
documentary on the Australian War Memorial called '<a href="http://www.historychannel.com.au/tv-shows/1527/the-memorial-beyond-the-anzac-legend" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cc0000;">The Memorial: Beyond the Anzac legend</span></a>' put together by the Eye Works team for the History Channel. Neil Oliver (he of ‘Coast’ fame) fronted the cameras and kept us all
entertained with his charming Scottish accent. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjww2pht7z31aXD6GSHemIOt1F5ChyG3Q52wYG-E1m8372MwlcPAejBQUlxzvtn8xHxHYQjw7TMCA-phFihbWzCHAoLEHTcmJ4UPyJAMODTG85n-7P4rhleafGLNe9W4nyHBury0djOrkBS/s1600/JB+with+Neil+Oliver+from+Coast.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="background-color: white; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjww2pht7z31aXD6GSHemIOt1F5ChyG3Q52wYG-E1m8372MwlcPAejBQUlxzvtn8xHxHYQjw7TMCA-phFihbWzCHAoLEHTcmJ4UPyJAMODTG85n-7P4rhleafGLNe9W4nyHBury0djOrkBS/s320/JB+with+Neil+Oliver+from+Coast.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">The Winged Victory conservation team with Neil Oliver</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And while we are on awards, I will just slip in that
we also won a Highly Commended for our work on the <a href="http://bickersteth.blogspot.com.au/2014/09/war-matters.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cc0000;">Sydney Town Hall Air Raid Shelter sign</span></a><span style="color: #990000;">. </span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">t was a good day for recognition</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> of expert conservation practice</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">.</span></div>
Julian Bickerstethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05961308379200386694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5432053566386803286.post-74240591322685451932015-04-25T18:44:00.000+10:002015-04-25T18:44:34.867+10:00First World War memorials in Australia<div class="MsoNormal">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Last year I
was asked to write an article on First World War memorials in Australia for the
UK National Trust’s Views Magazine. It was published in September 2014 and it
seems apposite to retell in my blog today. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">By the time
the Great War ground to a close in November 1918, 416,600 Australians had
enlisted out of a population of 4 million, representing almost 40 per cent of
men aged between 18 and 44. Australia's casualty rate was amongst the highest
in the war at 65 per cent, including almost 59,000 dead.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The impact
on a small and new nation (Australia had become a federation only in 1901) was
profound. One of the most difficult issues to come to terms with was the
remoteness of the battlefields. Whereas Britons could easily cross the Channel
to visit the graves of their loved ones, the high cost of travel to visit
Europe was beyond most Australians. As with Britain (but unlike the USA), the
Australian Government made the decision not to repatriate any bodies from the war.
The only exceptions were the body of an unknown Australian soldier and Major
General Sir William Throsby Bridges, killed in Gallipoli, who was the country’s
first major general and the first to receive a knighthood. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The war
memorial scene in Australia</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">War
memorials and their honour rolls therefore became critical points of
remembrance for grieving relatives. They were not new to the country as
Australians had died in relatively large numbers in the South African War in
the 1890s and even in the New Zealand wars of the 1840s. But it was the sheer
number of Great War memorials that transformed Australian townscapes.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Their form
followed those created in Britain. They range from statues of soldiers to
obelisks to arches and cenotaphs. Some of the designs were uniquely Australian,
such as depicting Australian Diggers (soldiers), and almost without exception
they used local stone except for imported carved figures in Carrara marble.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>The city
response</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In the
capital cities, Melbourne chose a vast Shrine of Remembrance with an inner shrine
surrounded by an ambulatory where books in glass-topped cabinets record the
names of the 114,000 men from Victoria who went to the war, a fresh page turned
every day to this day. Sydney also chose to record all those who had gone to
the war in its Anzac Memorial, not by name but by a gold star attached to the
domed ceiling, some 120,000 in all. Beneath them, in the so-called Well of
Contemplation, lies one of Australia's greatest bronze figures, a naked warrior
carried on a shield supported by three women sculpted by Raynor Hoff, a Royal
College of Art-educated Englishman of Dutch descent who had migrated to
Australia in 1923. Considered somewhat shocking at the time of opening in 1934,
it was heavily toned down from the original bronze concept entitled the
Crucifixion of Civilisation, which had been denounced by clergyman for
depicting tastelessly vivid horrors.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A mile from
the Anzac Memorial, Sydney commissioned a stone cenotaph outside the City's General
Post Office designed by Australia's most eminent sculptor of the day, the Royal
Academician Sir Bertram Mackennal. Mackennal chose to place a bronze soldier
and sailor either end of a large block of local granite. Brisbane initially
commissioned Sir Edwin Lutyens to replicate the Whitehall Cenotaph with the
addition of bronze servicemen but when this proved too costly they went for a
Delphic-colonnaded temple designed by local architects.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> The Cenotaph, Sydney. Photo: Julian Bickersteth</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">The Anzac Memorial, Brisbane. Photo: Julian Bickersteth</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The National
Memorial in Canberra, known as the Australian War Memorial, was conceived and
developed by an Oxford-educated Australian journalist, Charles Bean. Bean had
reported from the Western Front and after the war ended was determined to do
all he could to help Australians commemorate their loss. Principal amongst his
means of doing this was the creation of the Australian War Memorial, which is
actually a war museum centred on a Hall of Memory. This vast domed space is
covered by the southern hemisphere's largest mosaic, designed by Australian
artist Napier Waller. Waller was himself a war veteran; having lost his right
arm on the Western Front but, undaunted he taught himself to draw again with
his left hand.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Placement of
guns</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Bean also
struck upon the idea of shipping back to Australia large quantities of captured
ordnance. Again he saw the power in the tangible form of these weapons in
bringing the battlefields a little closer to Australia. In all some 500 pieces
of artillery, 400 mortars and 4,000 machine guns were shipped back and held in
Melbourne for cities and local councils across Australia to apply for them. Due
to over demand, a complicated system of ceding where each item of ordnance
would end up was developed based on the number of men that had enlisted
locally, the number of medals won and whether the particular gun had been
captured by a local battalion. The allocation did not please everyone, with
some councils complaining that they had only been awarded a machine gun when
their war contribution surely justified at least a mortar. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Trees and
arches</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Avenues of
trees are a particular feature of Australian war memorials. They came about as
a reminder of the avenues of trees that lined northern French roads, beneath
which the Australian Diggers would have marched. The avenues serve the useful
purpose of allowing individual trees to be planted as a memorial to a slain
relative or platoon. Occasionally these avenues begin with triumphal arches, a
form which does not seem to have become widely popular due almost certainly to
its celebratory tone.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgngcgZlyzU-IojNsk-_lu7lDU1KytMczed5sVsCfoyJ9pr4TvJLvPHPArBH6u6R0_TAM8zA6leXm5txQxlgCVFiMxOoRyJQmCg-Dyjp_QvuU5UU4Hip4ZtT6cHlgFn0ED7Oq1QR5jx_qB5/s1600/Ballarat+Arch+of+Victory+and+avenue+of+trees.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgngcgZlyzU-IojNsk-_lu7lDU1KytMczed5sVsCfoyJ9pr4TvJLvPHPArBH6u6R0_TAM8zA6leXm5txQxlgCVFiMxOoRyJQmCg-Dyjp_QvuU5UU4Hip4ZtT6cHlgFn0ED7Oq1QR5jx_qB5/s1600/Ballarat+Arch+of+Victory+and+avenue+of+trees.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">The Ballarat Arch of Victory and Avenue of Trees. Photo: Chris Betteridge</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Conservation
issues</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Conservation
work undertaken on war memorials reflects the broad approach taken in Great
Britain and generally involves careful cleaning, repointing to keep them
weather tight, re-gilding of incised lettering and protective waxing of bronze
honour rolls and figures.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It is the
guns shipped back from France and placed on top of many an Australian war
memorial that often prove to be the most problematic element for the memorial's
conservation due to the metal elements corroding and the wooden elements (e.g.
wheels) rotting. The numbers of the most fragile of them, however, the machine
guns, were dramatically reduced during the Second World War when they were
removed and refurbished for action.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">With the passage of
time, war memorials have inevitably deteriorated, but it is a testament to the
resilience of the materials selected and the care with which they were built
that they remain in remarkably good condition.</span></span></div>
Julian Bickerstethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05961308379200386694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5432053566386803286.post-41341642856205619322015-04-20T17:50:00.001+10:002017-05-23T10:56:48.338+10:00Winged Victory rises again<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Seated in the sun outside Marrickville Town Hall in
Sydney on Sunday morning to witness the unveiling of the Marrickville War
Memorial I was thinking back 93 years to the same ceremony. The great
difference of course was that the audience then included mothers, fathers,
brothers and sisters and even children of the 458 local lads who had so
recently given their lives. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">That said almost 100 years on it was a very moving
experience to be part of, but, you may well ask, why was a war memorial being
unveiled now.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-GB">The original Marrickville Soldiers’ Memorial was
unveiled in 1919 by Sir Walter Davidson, Governor of NSW, before 15,000 people.
The monument for the top of the Memorial was created by local artist and
sculptor Gilbert Doble. </span>Doble created a hollow <i>Winged Victory</i> sculpture,
surrounded by a copper cast that created a dominant artwork within the tight
constraints of the Memorial Fund’s budget. The instability of the resulting
artwork became apparent as early as 1927. <span lang="EN-GB">Within 40 years, the condition of the sculpture had deteriorated so
badly that it had to be taken down in 1962. </span>Despite being
returned to the Memorial in 1988 following restoration work, the continued
instability of the <i>Winged Victory</i> sculpture saw its removal a second time in
2008.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Gilbert Doble's original <i>Winged Victory</i> sculpture</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-GB">Here at ICS we considered various options for restoring and reinstalling the
statue but in July 2013, Marrickville Council voted to
commission a new sculpture for the Memorial. Council also endorsed the transfer
of ownership of Doble’s original <i>Winged Victory</i> to the <a href="https://www.awm.gov.au/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cc0000;">Australian War Memorial</span></a> </span><span lang="EN">in Canberra</span><span lang="EN-GB">. We undertook the complicated restoration of the original and oversaw its</span><span lang="EN"> transfer to Canberra, where the sculpture has now become the focal point of the
Memorial’s new First World War Galleries, which opened in November 2014. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span lang="EN"><br /></span></span>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span lang="EN" style="font-size: x-small;">Doble's <i>Winged Victory</i> sculpture </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span lang="EN" style="font-size: x-small;">now on display at the Australian War Memorial</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Meanwhile <i>Winged Victory, 2015</i> was commissioned from Melbourne's <a href="http://meridiansculpture.com/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cc0000;">Meridian Sculpture</span></a> with lead artists Peter Corlett and Darien Pullen in cast bronze.
Reflecting and respecting the original Doble sculpture, there are subtle changes,
most noticeably with the position of the sword changed from being raised in
triumph to pointing down to touch the earth (‘earth to earth, ashes to ashes’
etc). Along the way it stopped the sword from being a lightning rod,
which we had discovered was a significant cause of the damage that had been
inflicted to the original. </span><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><i>Winged Victory, 2015 </i>by Peter Corlett and Darien Pullen</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So Doble’s legacy lives on, both in original form at the Australian War
Memorial and in reinterpreted form in its original location, and the
citizens of Marrickville once again have a focal point to honour their local
war heroes.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
Julian Bickerstethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05961308379200386694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5432053566386803286.post-45508849875000544662015-04-08T11:42:00.001+10:002015-04-08T11:45:47.575+10:00Why we take audio tours<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I
must be honest that t</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">he
audio guide desk is not something I regularly head for in museums. Why? My immediate response would be that a) I don’t have time and b) I have listened
to too many overly didactic and drawn out commentaries. I have blogged before
on the technology challenges to the traditional audio guide (<a href="http://bickersteth.blogspot.com.au/2011/01/museums-smartphones-and-mobile.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cc0000;">January 2011</span></a>, <a href="http://bickersteth.blogspot.com.au/2011/02/audio-tours-how-participatory-do-we.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cc0000;">February 2011</span></a>, <a href="http://bickersteth.blogspot.com.au/2012/08/qr-codes-and-visual-recognition.html" style="background-color: white;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cc0000;">August 2012</span></a>, <a href="http://bickersteth.blogspot.com.au/2015/02/the-museum-effect-and-where-technology.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cc0000;">February 2015</span></a>)</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">. A few years on from some of those blogs, the predicted smartphone take over has not happened with the
audio tour still very much alive and well. My view is that </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">visitors have decided </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">the distraction of a further
visual aid in what is already a highly visual experience, particularly in an
art museum, is too much of a sensory overload.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #1f497d;">T</span>echnology aside, it is fascinating to
see what drives people to take up audio tours through new research by the
<a href="http://www.britishmuseum.org/" style="color: #cc0000;" target="_blank">British Museum</a>, entitled<span style="color: #cc0000;"> <a href="http://mw2015.museumsandtheweb.com/paper/an-audio-state-of-mind-understanding-behviour-around-audio-guides-and-visitor-media/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cc0000;">'An audio state of mind: Understanding behaviour around audio guides and visitor media'</span></a></span>. Their starting point was
the perceived low take up (160,000 out of nearly 7 million visitors) with
the aim being to increase this and also understand how visitors use the audio
guides. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Amongst a
number of interesting discoveries:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-indent: -18pt;">Time
plays a key role (I can empathise with that) with many visitors presuming the
audio tour will take a long time</span><span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-indent: -18pt;"> (</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-indent: -18pt;">though the
definition of ‘a long time’ varied between three and six hours</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-indent: -18pt;">) and force them to spend more time than they had.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-indent: -18pt;">It appears
that the traditional visitor segmentation of streakers, strollers and studiers (see my blog from <a href="http://bickersteth.blogspot.com.au/2011/10/catering-for-different-visitor-types.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cc0000;">October 2011</span></a>) is poorly servicing our understanding of visitors, with people moving between
segments during visits, displaying much more personalised and flexible
m</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-indent: -18pt;">otivations and identities.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; text-indent: -18pt;">Confidence
plays an important role, namely whether the visitor feels they can successfully
negotiate the museum unaided</span><span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; text-indent: -18pt;">,</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; text-indent: -18pt;"> relying on
labels.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; text-indent: -18pt;">Many visitors come knowing what they want to see, but once they
have done so, they tend to wander aimlessly, a perfect time to take up an audio
guide, if they could be corralled to be offered such.</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">A couple of
other</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> points. This research is from a paper due to be given at <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><a href="http://mw2015.museumsandtheweb.com/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cc0000;">Museums and the Web 2015 in Chicago</span></a></span> next week. Having been to three previous ones, the MW annual conference, now in its </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">19th </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">year, remains for me the mo</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">st </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">wide ranging</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> o</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">f the mainstream museum technology
get-togethers, the others being the more US based MCN</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">(<a href="http://mcn.edu/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cc0000;">Museum Computer Network</span></a>)</span> and the more
European based <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><a href="http://www.museumnext.com/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cc0000;">MuseumNext</span></a>.</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; text-indent: -24px;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; text-indent: -24px;">Also I liked
the way this project was put together. Described as an ‘agile‘ project, it had
a small team of one staff member, three free lancers and an intern, a defined
time scale, a project room, daily ‘scrums’, an initial research phase, and then
a prototype testing phase, resulting in some really useful outputs.</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: -24px;">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div style="text-indent: -24px;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
Julian Bickerstethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05961308379200386694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5432053566386803286.post-71218416613440758542015-03-27T10:02:00.000+11:002017-05-23T10:57:36.874+10:00Antarctic Matters<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The heroic era of Antarctic exploration which ran from
1899 to the middle of the First War is
the period which most captures our
imagination, through the extraordinary exploits of, in particular, Captain
Scott and Ernest Shackleton. There was
then a lull in exploration proceedings, with only one expedition between the
wars, the British Graham Land Expedition 1934-37. On that was a young Cambridge graduate, Lancelot Fleming, who after a stellar Antarctic career including becoming
director of the <a href="http://www.spri.cam.ac.uk/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cc0000;">Scott Polar Research Institute</span></a> in Cambridge, turned his collar round (as my father would
say) eventually becoming Dean of St George's Windsor and knighted by the
Queen. I met him in his latter years, a
distinguished tall and charming man who bothered to engage with a scruffy
teenager (me).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Fleming was highly influential in encouraging Vivian
Fuchs, better known as Bunny Fuchs, to lead the first major post war expedition, the British Commonwealth
Trans-Antarctic Expedition in
1957-58. Forty years after Shackleton
had tried to cross Antarctica and failed when the Endurance broke up in the
Weddell Sea, the expedition's idea was to travel the 2000 miles across the
continent via the South Pole.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As Fuchs needed a base on the far side of the continent
from which food and fuel depots could be laid for him, he approached the New
Zealand government for help. As
that year was also the International
Geophysical Year which brought together countries from around the world to
carry out coordinated research in a number of the physical sciences, New
Zealand warmed to the idea and appointed Sir Edmund Hillary, he of recent
Everest conquest, to lead their part of the expedition.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The story of that expedition, its highs and lows, its
risks and personality clashes is beautifully told in Stephen Haddelsey's '<a href="http://www.amazon.com.au/Shackletons-Dream-Hillary-Crossing-Antarctica-ebook/dp/B00724WUK0/ref=sr_1_2/376-7420679-4518431?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1427242814&sr=1-2" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cc0000;">Shackleton's Dream: Fuchs, Hillary and the Crossing of Antarctica</span></a>'. It's a great
yarn, the two different styles of leadership illustrated by the form of
transport used, Fuchs with his snow cats and Hillary with his converted
Ferguson farm tractors. Visit the <a href="http://www.canterburymuseum.com/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cc0000;">Canterbury Museum</span></a> in Christchurch New Zealand if you
want to see surviving examples of both.</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Anyway, this is all a preamble to an event which I was
lucky enough to attend in Parliament House, Wellington last week at which the <span style="color: #cc0000;"><a href="http://www.heritage-antarctica.org/aht.htm?CFID=72156161&CFTOKEN=51318946" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cc0000;">Antarctic Heritage Trust's</span></a> </span>Conservation Plan for the surviving hut that was built as part of that
expedition was launched by the Prime Minister, John Key. Known variously as
Hillary's Hut, the TAE (Trans Antarctic Expedition) Hut and the IGY
(International Geophysical Year) Hut, it was the first building at Scott
Base. The Plan was authored by Chris Cochrane, and I have been
part of a peer review, so it was very special to talk to key men in the
original construction, including Randall Heke who physically built it, Bill
Cranfield who was on the expedition, and Hillary's widow, June. The hut marked the beginning of New Zealand's
major contribution to Antarctic exploration and science, of which they are very
justifiably proud.</span><o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSFz4o8w_syKzKoZ91ilwrVV7ebx6dGyeqLrh4e_hYfdpjxgC1AuyMUEV7wtT1AdCuYVxkfBRVmfI7bo5RtSYXKBysK_yiRMOzpIN7TfUmpQNRW69L1FQrXI7v_p1RQnVXpp9GtP_q0V1I/s1600/Hut+-+Scotts+Base.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="216" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSFz4o8w_syKzKoZ91ilwrVV7ebx6dGyeqLrh4e_hYfdpjxgC1AuyMUEV7wtT1AdCuYVxkfBRVmfI7bo5RtSYXKBysK_yiRMOzpIN7TfUmpQNRW69L1FQrXI7v_p1RQnVXpp9GtP_q0V1I/s1600/Hut+-+Scotts+Base.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Hillary's Hut at Scott Base</span></div>
</div>
Julian Bickerstethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05961308379200386694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5432053566386803286.post-31975625824914575182015-02-13T11:29:00.001+11:002015-02-13T11:30:29.182+11:00The Museum Effect and where technology fits in (or doesn't) <div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The <a href="http://www.aam-us.org/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cc0000;">American Alliance for Museums</span></a> (AAM) has recently
initiated a great chat site known as <a href="http://community.aam-us.org/home" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cc0000;">Museum Junction</span></a>, which is continually
throwing up useful information. One recent discussion was on museological
books, and I was drawn to a contributor identifying <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Museum-Effect-Libraries-Institutions/dp/0759122954" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cc0000;">The Museum Effect by Jeffrey K. Smith</span></a> as being his best read of the year. Subtitled 'How Museums,
Libraries and Cultural Institutions Educate and Civilise Society', it sounded
like an interesting book.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And it delivers what it promises, albeit from a strongly art gallery focus,
which is where the author's experience lies. I have a few gripes with its
content and style, one being I don't see how the process of viewing art (described as 'The 'Right' way to look at art') can be discussed without
reference in either the text or the chapter references to Kenneth Clark (see my blog on <a href="http://bickersteth.blogspot.com.au/2009/09/how-to-look-at-art.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cc0000;">'How to look at art'</span></a> from September 2009) especially as the process described is exactly what Clark proscribed. Another is that two images turn up twice, one being a full page in
each instance, which smacks to me of page filling.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">However, having got that off my chest, two particular issues
struck a chord with me. The first is the extensive discussion on visitor
surveys, how to construct and run them, and what to make of the data they
provide. This builds off the direct and extensive experience of the author
whilst working at <a href="http://www.metmuseum.org/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cc0000;">the Met</span></a>, but it cites various case studies at other
organisations as well - all very useful stuff for those in the business of
such.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The second is the chapter on media available to present
information to visitors. There is discussion on the options both current and
future, including labels and wall text, audio tours, in-person tours, reading
rooms and catalogues, and off-site website access. Finally there is
mention of what are described as 'video tours'. The potential delivery
technology for such is not mentioned, whether it is NFC, QR codes, or RFID
readers, nor the vehicle for such whether they be smartphones, Google
Glass, iPads, or even 3D visuals delivered through Nintendo game consoles, as
is the case at <a href="http://www.louvre.fr/en/museum-audio-guide" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cc0000;">the Louvre</span></a>.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As I read I had pause to reflect that here was an expert
writing from within one of the great art museums of the world, and making a
very pertinent point "Do we really want to draw the attention of the
visitor away from the work of art... with a video screen in competition with
oil on wood or gouache on paper?"</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Good point, Jeffery K. Smith, and for me as one who has long
espoused the virtues of technology for enhancing the visitor experience, it is
a salutary one.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
Julian Bickerstethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05961308379200386694noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5432053566386803286.post-55240450844743793622015-02-02T16:35:00.000+11:002015-02-02T16:35:30.554+11:00British Museum conservation<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The new <a href="http://www.britishmuseum.org/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cc0000;">British Museum</span></a> conservation labs have been the talk
of the profession since they opened late last year, so I was pleased to have a
tour of them with Dr Anna Buelow, the acting head of conservation, two weeks
ago. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The raw data is that the BM has built a new £135 million
facility known as the <a href="http://www.britishmuseum.org/about_us/the_museums_story/new_centre.aspx" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cc0000;">World Conservation and Exhibition Centre</span></a>, which brings
together all their conservation labs into one building over 18,000 square metres along
with the Museum's exhibition operations and a new exhibition space.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A full description can be found in the latest <a href="https://www.iiconservation.org/system/files/publications/journal/2014/b2014_6.pdf" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cc0000;">News in Conservation</span></a>, the free publication of <a href="https://www.iiconservation.org/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cc0000;">IIC</span></a>, </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">so I will not dwell on the detail, but rather pick up my
takeaways from the visit:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">First and foremost is
the flexibility that has been achieved. It seems to have become a key buzz word
in the planning process, and it has resulted in spaces that can be almost
infinitely reconfigured to suit the requirements of the objects being
worked on. This is helped by almost all staff (some 80 at present) hot desking,
thus ensuring it is easy for staff to relocate to another space that may suit
the treatment better.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Alongside this
flexibility is the benefits that have come from bringing all the disciplines
under one roof, and encouraging cross disciplinary use of spaces. Thus, textiles
and paper now share a wet space, which is not only more efficient but ensures
the two sections work closely together in their planning. This process of cross
disciplinary collaboration is further aided by a central break out area
with comfy chairs, where for the first time in living memory all the departments can get together socially. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And just as this brings
about efficiencies of operations, so also ease of access has been massively
increased. Previously any large objects had to be brought into the labs through
the exhibition halls, thus meaning it had to be undertaken out of hours. Now
with dedicated loading dock access (including the largest truck lift in Europe), all this movement can take place during normal hours.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Finally, what
particularly struck me is that the labs are not full of sparkling new state of
the art equipment, not that they don't present very smartly. The money
has been spent more subtly on flexible furniture (see above) and quality
finishes, such as beautiful polished concrete floors in the sculpture labs with
much of the tried and tested equipment brought from the old labs.</span></li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Well done to the BM - Seven years of planning has produced a
model to us all on how to develop a conservation facility for current times.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
Julian Bickerstethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05961308379200386694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5432053566386803286.post-51084309908286835332015-01-27T14:05:00.004+11:002015-01-27T16:53:34.724+11:00In defence of Egyptian conservators<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Reading about
the botched beard reattachment job on King Tut in the London Times on Friday, I
had my doubts as to whether this was really the work of my conservator
colleagues in Egypt. So I am glad to read in today’s <a href="http://artdaily.com/news/75984/Egypt-conservationists-to-sue-over--botched--Egyptian-Pharaoh-Tutankhamun-mask-repair#.VMb9Zv6Ueao" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cc0000;">Art Daily</span></a> that the director of the <a href="http://www.sca-egypt.org/eng/MUS_Egyptian_Museum.htm" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cc0000;">Egyptian Museum</span></a>, Dr Mahmoud
al-Helwagy has denied that conservators were involved, strongly defending
them, saying “This is illogical and inconceivable. These are conservation
workers, not carpenters.”<span style="color: #1f497d;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">But let’s recap
on what we do know of the story so far (which I suspect has some way to run
yet). It appears that a maintenance worker noted a light was out in the
glass case that houses King Tutankhamun’s funerary mask in the Egyptian Museum,
Cairo, which just happens to be one of the great treasures of the world. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">In the process
of removal, the case hit the mask and it almost fell off its pedestal, saved by
a lunging curator who grabbed it in his arms. Unfortunately the lunge was just
not quite delicate enough (such being the nature of lunges) and the
beard fell off. I can’t imagine what language was used at the time but it would
have been a jaw dropping moment for all involved.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Whereupon all
hell clearly broke loose, the loudest voice being the one that yelled ‘pass me
the epoxy quickly’. A hasty repair was executed and the beard was soon
back in its rightful position. Two problems folks, however, arise.
Number one is that, although epoxy is used in conservation, it is extremely
difficult to reverse and should only be used when no other adhesive can take
the strain and after much discussion around the proposed treatment. Secondly
and more obviously, the repair is clearly crooked, which is what alerted the
outside world to the problem in the first place.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">How can this
happen, you rightly ask? Well, firstly, accidents do happen - check out my blog
post from <a href="http://bickersteth.blogspot.com.au/2010/02/conservators-to-rescue-two-losses-and.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cc0000;">February 2010</span></a> for a few examples. Secondly, involvement of non-conservators invariably spells
disaster. Again, witness the story of our old friend </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #545454; font-family: arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18.2000007629395px;">Cecilia Giménez</span><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><span style="background: white;"><span style="color: #333333;"> and her restoration of the
face of Jesus in the Spanish church of Santuario de la Misericordia </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><span style="background: white;"><span style="color: #333333;">near Zaragoza (</span><a href="http://bickersteth.blogspot.com.au/2012/09/ecce-homo-and-copyright.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cc0000;">September 2012</span></a><span style="color: #333333;">). <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">And thirdly, this is not a unique example of such an
experience. Some years ago, an Australian conservator friend of mine couriered
a clay artefact to an exhibition in Europe, seeing it placed in position and
the display case locked, before she set off for her hotel. Returning the next
day to the exhibition for a final look before she headed home, she was
surprised to see the display case had been moved. Checking the artefact
through the glass, she detected firstly a crack and then some excess glue on
the surface. The sorry tale was soon revealed – the display case had to be
moved after my friend left, the artefact fell over and broke in two in
the process and a panicking curator applied some Supaglue to try and make good.</span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">But don’t blame it on the conservators!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Julian Bickerstethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05961308379200386694noreply@blogger.com0