Damage and Repair

I was on quite a roll at the end of last year, so many ideas and techniques tried such as drawing on felt, calico and free machine embroidery from direct observation onto dissolvable fabric. I burnt fabric and repaired the  holes with embroidery, and created something new from the damage. So now, where to take this? 

When things are damaged we either decide to just throw them away, try to repair or recycle. Whilst visiting the Ashmolean Museum, OxfordI, at the weekend I  read a thoughtful Swedish proverb that was included in an exhibition about conservation  -

 'What breaks in a moment may take years to mend'

Crockery and glasses get dropped and the damaged in seconds whilst stone statues and heavy bronze basins (Asmolean Museum) will take years to decay. Lives can be taken in seconds or disease can cause a slow deterioration in our daily actions but what is common to all is our desire to try and mend: mend a broken heart after a death or meticulously put a china pot back together.  But how can successful this can be will depend on how we view the damage: how much we need it to be back together again and how much we can manage to make do with what we have left. 

Museums can often be left with a similar dilemma - to conserve and restore or just preserve in the state the artefact is now in. Traditionally conservators aimed to enhance the damage and alter the objects or paintings that they were working with.  This might be true of the Sistene Chapel in Rome when layers of dirt, grime and candle smoke were removed and revealed unexpected bright colours. However, it has been suggested that Michelangelo had not intended that to be the case; Bob Dugan (1) supports the argument that it was not intended to be bright - Michelangelo had painted subdued colours. The conservators had  also removed the protective layer and left the Sistene Chapel opened to the elements - attacked by the humidity caused by the large number of daily visitors. Likewise was the question of wether or not to repair the broken arm of the Venous de Milo. 

Before and after, Sistene Chapel

The Asmolean also had some some examples of copper bowls that had been cleaned in an attempt to remove the corrosion - a porous surface was left with holes where no solid metal remained. The bowl on the right has not been touched - evidence of the past is preserved in the corrosion.

So questions for me to start thinking about:

- Damage that has happened, does it need to be repaired?  Will it be an improvement?

- Is a an ugly part of somethings history as much a part of the story as what is genuine and original?

- What about the new patterns, pieces and shapes that were once the object, the life - can they now take on a new role? New purpose?

1 - http://bigthink.com/Picture-This/did-the-vatican-ruin-the-sistine-chapel-frescoes