Nicole Tse

Arthur Boyd’s painting materials in the 1940s: a case study of works from the Heide Museum of Modern Art Collection

Abstract Recent conservation treatment of Arthur Boyd’s paintings from the Heide Museum of Modern Art collection has raised questions about his studio practice and material preferences. Four paintings on muslin board from Boyd’s 1943–44 ‘South Melbourne’ series appear to use unconventional materials, which may highlight the practical realities of wartime shortages of artist paints and the alternative use of proprietary materials. The conservation treatments of Boyd’s paintings initiated scientific investigations using Fourier Transform Infrared and Scanning Electron Microscopy, which is assessed in the context of Boyd’s archival documents and personal correspondence. This paper presents new findings on Boyd’s material choices and his intentions early in his career. Evidence suggests that Boyd used an oleoresinous varnish and experimented with new organic colourants. The use of non-traditional materials has consequently resulted in the Heide paintings exhibiting unusual ageing characteristics and by necessity, their conservation treatment. This highlights future preservation problems for 20th century Australian works of art.

Preventive Conservation: People, Objects, Place and Time in the Philippines

ABSTRACT Preventive conservation, with its origins grounded in the material fabric of cultural material, is in a period of transformation, with numerous practitioners, in and outside of the field of conservation, considering its broader and holistic objectives. The conventional tools for the assertion of preventive conservation principles, namely the assessment and management of risks to cultural material from the ‘ten agents of deterioration’, have a central focus on the primacy of physical materials and degradation, with less clear relationships with people, place, and time in their modelling. With a case study focus on collections in the Philippines, this paper argues for a practice of preventive conservation that incorporates a balanced assessment and broader thinking around the contexts of objects, people, place, and time. The case studies of ecclesiastical Church collections, and museum environments in the Philippines, demonstrate how the interdependency of objects, people, place and time forms a holistic and conceptual preventive conservation framework. Through a cyclic renegotiation of these four parameters, this paper speculates on the gaps and opportunities for an inclusive view of preventive conservation that is current and more sustainable.

The potential role of citizen conservation in re-shaping approaches to murals in an urban context

Public visual spaces, populated by a blend of community murals, unauthorised street art, and historic painted mercantile signs, are often the mark of an urban environment that is both progressive and eclectic. Changes in the aesthetic and cultural value of these urban mural forms have led to an increase in the appreciation and, in some instances, promotion of their artistic merit and cultural significance as examples of public art. However, examining the significance of these works, with a view to implementing a conservation approach is problematic. This is due to a number of practical and theoretical considerations that are primarily a result of the ephemeral existence of urban murals outside conventional exhibition spaces, and issues associated with their often fragmented ownership and uncertain authorship. Consequently, larger thinking on the interpretation, conservation assessment, and advocacy for the conservation of urban murals are required. Key to defining and implementing such strategies is contextualising the public visual spaces that these murals occupy and, as part of this, the local and wider communities’ perception of these murals as culturally significant objects as well as fostering awareness and understanding of appropriate measures aimed at their conservation. This paper examines the role of citizen science, or crowd-sourcing, of local community members in establishing a conservation dialogue and generating conservation- relevant data on urban murals. It looks specifically at a project involving a collection of in situ historic painted mercantile signs — also known as ghost signs — in the City of Port Phillip, Melbourne, Australia. The project fostered the establishment of an informed and open dialogue between conservation specialists and participants from the local community on the significance of local ghost signs whilst transferring knowledge on conservation processes and assessment methods. Working directly with community members, a programme was designed in which conservation and community knowledge of these urban art forms, could be collected and exchanged across digital platforms. This enabled researchers to examine how citizen science can be utilised as a research tool as well as a means to advocate for the conservation of collections of urban murals. It created the opportunity to consider the role of non-specialists and shared authorities in the collection and collation of conservation- relevant data and how information generated from what we call citizen conservation projects, can inform the way in which conservators evaluate and prioritize the conservation of urban cultural heritage. The data gathered and interpreted proved to be the most effective means of ‘conserving’ these often ephemeral forms of cultural material.

Interviewing artists exhibited in The Field (1968): The use of acrylic paints in a seminal exhibition of Australian colour field painting

Artist interviews are utilized in contemporary conservation practice to gain a deeper understanding of the artists intent. This method gathers intangible information not obtainable through technic...

THE AICCM Bulletin, Volume 36.2 Editorial

Objects and things are in the public domain. The British Museum’s ‘A History of the World in  Objects’ visibly celebrates objects with offshoot BBC programs and in Australia, ‘Restoration Australia’ and ‘Who do you think you are?’ Among the Millennials‘bespoke’ is now a common term and magazines such as ‘Frankie’ feature independent makers and a diverse range of cultural forms and practices. Simultaneously object based learning, examining the links between objects, people and society, is being revisited in high schools and Australian Universities. Underpinning these trends are the theoretical approaches of Ajun Appadurai (), Igor Klopytoff () and Alfred Gell (), to name a few, where the social life and biographies of objects communicate their relative meanings over time. It is their materiality and the ‘ongoing oscillations in objects that mark material relations between people, things, and broader identities’ (Spyer, in Milgram & Hamilton ). These views are focussing popular attention back onto objects, their making and trajectories. Objects are central to cultural materials conservation. We assign values and levels of significance to objects, manage change, physically interact with them and closely read objects to broker new knowledge. There have been some recent good public examples of object interactions and conservation in Australian institutions; however we are still not as present as we could be in this space. It is not as if we do not know objects. We have a specific set of analytics to build knowledge and interdisciplinary ways to closely study them. Further conservators ‘hold a privileged and potentially powerful position through their relationship with objects that represent communal property with attested collective value’ (Saunders ). But maybe our contribution to the field is less visible, and we do not have an immediate public presence as mainly institutionally based professionals. Sloggett aptly states that ‘conservation needs to be integrated into broader societal agendas...’ and ‘that such integration is critical for the survival of the profession’ (, p. ). In this volume we can examine these concepts, objects, things and the presence of cultural materials conservation. Sloggett’s paper A National Conservation Policy for a New Millennium – Building opportunity, extending capacity and securing integration in cultural materials conservation, argues for a new national policy that recognises collections outside institutional frameworks to ‘be subject to new forms of research’ and ‘the next iteration of a nation’s cultural record’. This paper highlights major gaps in Australia’s cultural record and objects that represent pluralistic narratives and biographies. The paper is solid in its argument and creates a ‘political will’ for the profession to consider and step outside its conventional boundaries for increased engagement. Relatedly Sam Hamilton and Steaphan Paton’s paper Boorun’s canoe focusses on the role of conservation in indigenous communities, specifically the Gunai/Kurnai people of Gippsland, where the process of making has a greater focus than the long term preservation of the object. The paper reiterates Gell’s views () where the agency and action of artistic creativity is of greater value as well as intergenerational knowledge transfer. It also reconsiders Museum Victoria’s protocols for community engagement and the social and mediatory role of objects in the way we work. Eliza O’Donnell, Nicole Tse and Amerrudin Ahmad’s paper on Singapore artist Georgette Chen maps object timelines from an artist’s centred perspective and interrogates her material choices as a reflection of place. This plays an important role in Chen’s identity as an artist and how her paintings supported ‘the performance of identity and development of socio-cultural behaviours’ (Saunders ). Similarly Céline de Courlon, Simon Ives and Paula Dredge’s Fields of colour: the conservation of matt, synthetic paintings by Michael Johnson, develops object timelines as vessels of knowledge to test material assumptions and ‘indicate[d] a more widespread use of PVA’s in Australia than has previously been thought’. Further Michael Johnson’s willing engagement in conservation decisions show that institutions are working successfully outside conventional frameworks and have greater presence in communities of artistic practice. Positive interactions are also detailed in Amanda Pagliarino and Michael Marendy’s paper on Ron Mueck in bed () – a contemporary textile challenge. The collective role of conservators, artists, makers and fabricators is demonstrated and how objects evolve according to the current needs and social uses. In this case, the duvet was reproduced with an emphasis on ‘duplication in form, fit and presentation’ rather than a fixed idea of the originality. Our other authors in volume . consider the active role of conservation treatment methods and how they evolve and alter the trajectory of object biographies. Susie Collis’s Revisiting conservation treatment methodologies for waterlogged archaeological wood: an Australian context; Lucy Willet and Mick Newnham

Artists’ interviews and their use in conservation: reflections on issues and practices

Artists’ interviews are widely used in the conservation of contemporary art. Best practice is detailed in recent publications, conferences and workshops, however, there is little information on how to analyse the data collected, and the issues related to the dissemination and future access to the content. This article examines various techniques of analysis appropriated from qualitative research in the social sciences, and relates them to the intended uses of interviews in conservation. Drawing on a case study that involved interaction with an artist over several years, including interviews and informal conversations, this article argues that a conservators’ specific skills set has the capacity to interpret the findings and to understand the creative processes. It also highlights the importance of reflexivity and the public circulation of this interpretation, which is essential for the development of a sustainable practice of artists’ interviews in conservation.

Application of ESPI to painted canvas

We demonstrate the successful use of electronic speckle pattern interferometry (ESPI) in the laboratory and in-situ for the detection of in-plane movement of painted canvas due to variable environmental conditions.