Closing Exhibition 7th-19th of december 2011

An exhibition of some of the conserved rare and historic books from the Derry and Raphoe Diocesan Library will be held in the Chapter House Museum of St Columb’s Cathedral from December 7th to December 19th 2011.

This exhibition marks the culmination of a three-year Heritage Lottery Funded project, supported also by private donors, which aimed to help conserve the Church of Ireland’s Diocesan Library and make it more accessible to the community.

The Chapter House exhibition will highlight the different types of work undertaken by the Project team, both conservation and outreach, and some of the challenges involved in conserving such a historic collection.  

The Derry and Raphoe Diocesan Library Exhibition takes place in the Chapter House Museum from Wednesday December 7 to Monday December 19 ( Opening Times :Monday –Saturday, 9 am until 5 pm.

Turner Prize 2011@ Baltic

I was in Newcastle-upon-Tyne at the weekend and I happened to go to the Baltic in Gateshead where the 2011 Turner prize is being held. After 30 minutes queuing, I finally got in and was shown into 4 rooms, one dedicated to each of the shortlisted artists. As a conservator, I could not help but think about certain issues associated with the conservation of Contemporary Art.

The work of Karla Black, a Scottish born and one of the shortlisted artist, was particularly interesting to me in relation to the approach a conservator should have regarding her work. Her pieces on cellophane (you can see at the back of the picture below) I found particularly challenging as the paint she has applied on is obviously peeling off and flaking away.

Karla Black's installation @ Baltic for the 2011 Turner Prize

 I would imaging she is aware of the fact and desires this reaction to happen as part of her creating process. But how is this affecting and influencing her artistic ideas? Is she aware of the extent of the degradation of the material she is using? Is it disrupting the visual intentions? Does she intent people to walk on the coloured chalk scattered around her paper sculptures? And what would she want a conservator to do about it?

Cellophane piece on exhibition in 2009

 In their book “The Challenge of Installation Art” Glenn Wharton and Harvey Molotch say that when working on Contemporary Art a conservator should be aware of the context of the installation, the varying and changing values of the piece and its physical transformations. But all this can evolve quickly and the question is to know which angle is most appropriate for each artwork at a given time. When an Artist is still alive, the question can be put directly to him/her. We must not forget that artists may have answered the question in previous  interview or gave precise guidelines. However, is this always the best way to go about it? Artists, collectors can change their minds, conservation attitude is constantly evolving. Our code of ethic states that if there is a conflict, the conservator should always resolve it in a way that is consistent with his/her respect to the object.

In conclusion, we should always put the art work above, respect the artist’s intents and yet carry out conservation work that is “ethical” to us.

 The turner prize winner will be announced on the 5th of December 2011. Best of luck to all 4 shortlisted artists. And I would like to remind you that Derry might be hosting the 2013 Turner Prize as part of 2013-UK City of Culture. This would be an amazing opportunity to develop the contemporary Art Scene in the region.

Signed on the cover!

Going through the shelf in the Rare Books Room this morning, I came across this lovely limp vellum binding, a 1573 Italian-Latin dictionary printed in Bologna. Jenny, Joe and I were quite surprise to find that Ezekiel Hopkins had signed the book directly on its parchment cover as he usually signed his books on the title page or first endleaf.

G I a 19 front cover

 He probably came into possession of this book in October 1663 when he was  assistant curate to Dr. Spurstow, at Hackney, and later brought it with him to Raphoe when he was nominated Bishop in 1670. This book is just a lovely piece of Bishop Hopkins personal history which also gives us a better understanding of  the Derry and Raphoe Diocesan Library.

Signed endleaf

Christopher Clarkson’s gelatine adhesive

Today I have had to prepare gelatine adhesive to work on one of the book I am doing conservation work on. I had been talking to my colleagues Tony and Jenny,  and looking through their notes, they managed to give me Christopher Clarkson’s recommended method of making gelatine adhesive. He ran a course here in the studio in November 2010 about limp vellum bindings. 

His suggested method was to use leaf gelatine which you can cut to different sizes and use different dosages of water to obtain the desired strength.

Gelatine leaf

 For a medium strength:

1/8 – 7 ml

1/4 -15 ml

For stronger strength:

1/8 – 5 ml

1/16 – 4 ml

 

 

Pre-heat the water in a round bottom flask on a baby bottle warmer but do not boil. The gelatine leaf can be cut into small squares and added to the flask. Christopher Clarkson has recommended that the neck of the flask was covered by cling film to prevent air flow, he also recommended using a Hog bristle brush.

Tooling and manuscript as endpapers

One of the last find in the Derry and Raphoe collection was this beautiful book with lovely tooling of recorded roll (late 16th-17th Century) quite unusual for such a small size book (16cm in height).

Tooling of front board of C I. k 19

Another feature of this collection I really enjoy and appreciate is the use of waste manuscript as endpapers. In this book, a lovely illuminated manuscript on parchment has been folded and sewn front and back of the book. Discolouration of the parchment is visible where it was in contact with the covering material, but what I found really fascinating is the offsetting of the letter P, painted red and blue from the endpaper onto the leather.

Manuscript waste as endpaper on C I. k 19

Chinese Paintings on Pith Paper

I am just back from London, where I had the chance to attend the ‘Paper from the East’ conference at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich.  It is the second Chinese Heritage Conference dedicated to the knowledge of conservation and Museum management of Chinese and Asian Collections, organised by China Culture Connect.

First of all I would like to say that I very much enjoyed all the talks and want to thank the organisers for their efficient and good work.

 

One of the talk I enjoyed very much and also learned a lot from was entitled ‘Chinese Paintings on Pith – a Paper’s Conservator’s approach’ by Ruth Prosser, private paper conservator in York, England.

Painting on pith paper

 

Pith paper, also referred to as ‘rice paper’ comes from the inner pith of Tetrapanax papyriferus, a South Asian plant. The pith found on the inside of the plant, is removed by pushing a circular dowel through the branches. It is then stripped into thin slices using a very sharp knife.

In the early 19^thCentury Chinese artists adopted this support to paint on and exported their work to western countries. They were first brought back to the West by diplomats as presents and souvenirs. Eventually pith paper became a primary material for the Chinese watercolour market. The pith paintings were generally mounted in silk cover albums, with no signature on the painting itself but were identified by stamps or labels on the album’s cover.

Pith painting in album

Pith paper is a very fragile material and its surface can easily be bruised. It has a very soft, spongy texture and can break easily. It is also highly reactive to water, probably because it comes directly from the unprocessed plant and has more hemicelluloses and pectin than conventional paper pulp. Pith paper contracts as it ages which leads to cracks in the objects where it has been restrained.

Surface cleaning should only be done using very soft brushes so as not to bruise the painting surface. Because of its high sensitivity to water, pith paper cannot be washed as other papers can, however, slow and controlled humidification can be achieved with humidification sandwich techniques. Reduction of staining is successful using poultices around unpainted areas of the paper and cyclododecane wax around the painted areas as a protective barrier. Pith paper does not like being restrained in any way which can be problematic to repair any tears in the paper the traditional way (Japanese paper and wheat strach paste or methyl cellulose) but the non-fibrous structure of pith paper allow the pieces to be fitted together with only minimal amount of adhesive introduced on both sides of the tears.

As conservators we should keep in mind the different nature of pith papers and other traditional pulp papers, and treat them appropriately.  

Okaeri Project

Disaster victims look through photos at a temple in Rikuzen-Takata, Iwate Prefecture

Six months have passed since the earthquake that devastated North East Japan and the reconstruction is far from finished. The members of the Tokyo Bookbinding Club along with famous bookbinder Sün Evrard have put in place a project that looks at creating and donating hand-bound photo albums to those who recovered family photographs in the mud and ruins after the tsunami. It is the « OKAERI PROJECT ». In japanese it means that the rescued and restored items will be returned to their owners.

Satoko Kinno, a book conservator, is in charge of conserving the photographic material which will be exhibited afterwards. To know more about the project you can visit the Tokyo bookbinding club website and read this article.