Hello! We
have been busy moving to different cities/countries, job-hunting, and oh
yeah—completing our MSc in Conservation Practice! So now that we are Masters of
Science, we are returning to the blog world to share our experience from last
summer. We assisted in the conservation of objects for Bristol Museum and Art
Gallery’s exhibit titled ‘death: the human experience.’ It was not as grave as
it sounds!
This exhibit allows people to observe how different cultures view and deal with death. This varied representation allowed us to work with diverse objects as beautiful and intriguing as the cultures represented. We worked with several objects used during funerary or death rituals and have chosen a few memorable pieces to write about.
An Oceanic, and very heavy, funerary statue of a woman was one of the objects we conserved
for display. Although robust, the wooden statue was covered in delicate loose
pigments. A separate paintbrush had to be used for each colour as we dusted off
residual dirt from the statue’s surface so as not to brush one colour pigment
onto another.
The statue's necklaces pre-conservation and the statue on display.
The statue
also wore necklaces made of seashells and nutshells. The seashells were cleaned
similarly to the bone conservation described in Tanya’s previous placement
blogpost http://samandtanyaconservators.blogspot.com/2014/10/part-1-door-by-dodo-my-placement-at.html. Instead of Triton-X, swabs of our
spit were used to break down the dirt followed by swabs of 50/50 deionised
water and IMS to remove residue cleaned up the seashells nicely. We then used vulcanized
rubber to dry clean the dirt off the nutshells.
Vulcanized rubber: No, this is not a rubber created by any Star Trek characters. Vulcanized rubber is a natural rubber that can be used as a dry sponge and can be cut for easy control to pull dirt away from a surface.
Another object
we conserved was an Oceanic funerary wig. It was incredible to see how this
object was created, imagine a plant-based woven basket with hair attached. We gently
brushed off excess dust from the wig with paintbrushes but we had to be as
careful as possible because of the lice. You read that correctly—lice!
Historical lice that could not be removed as it was a part of the object’s
past.
Funerary wig with historical lice.
Next up we
conserved a wooden funerary mask. A soft brush was used to brush away the loose
dust and dirt in the same way as we did with the statue. A museum vac was used
to take the dirt away from the object as we brushed the surface. The mask’s
ruffled feathers were gently re-positioned. The loose feathers were re-adhered
using Paraloid-B72 (another adhesive used and discussed in previous blogposts),
applied with a cocktail stick so as not to use too much.
The mask on display.
A few different taxidermy animals were selected to
portray predators and scavengers in the exhibit. A vulture, an owl, a jackal
and a crow were chosen, but needed some cleaning before being ready for
display. Their feathers and fur were cleaned using microfibre cloths, which we used
to pet the animals clean. Probably the most pleasant conservation experience so
far! These cloths are able to effectively pick up dust and dirt while being
very gentle on the fur and feathers. The eyes and claws were cleaned using spit
cleaning, followed by 50/50 deionised water and IMS.
The vulture on display.
The death
exhibition had dim, but appropriate lighting for the objects and general
atmosphere of the display. It was thrilling to see objects we worked on shown
so creatively while also being informative and respectful in opening dialogue
about ethics and attitudes regarding death.
Our animal friends watching us in the lab.
