An argument against change? The dynasties of papyrus that sparkles...
Yesterday was another interesting day with the curatorial trainees that are currently visiting the Museum. As I work in the Africa section, most of the conservation for our objects is done by the Organics and by the Ceramics section. We also have a range of work for the Metals section, like the Benin brasses, some bronzes and some gold, so with visiting groups in the past, we've pretty much stuck to visiting Metals, Ceramics and Organics. But since these visiting curators come from all over the World, working with all kinds of objects, we're going to all the Conservation departments; yesterday's stop being at "Western Art on Paper" (as opposed to the studio that does the Asian prints, etc...) and an Organics studio that does a lot of work with Egyptian collections.
Anyhow, among many cool things seen yesterday, the coolest thing of note was hearing from the papyrus specialist in Western Art on Paper, also cool because I knew this woman from Wednesday yoga at the Museum but had never known what she did there. She is the one conservator who deals primarily with papyrus; paper scrolls or sections buried thousands and thousands of years ago. And, as they end up crumbling, her job brings the idea of puzzle building to the level of Zen master patience, with a whole ton of science and creative thinking tossed in.
Besides trying to put manuscripts or other pieces into some kind of coherent order for analysis, she also does scientific analysis of the pigments used on the papyrus. The Egyptians often used to use this yellow colour, discovered to be arsenic sulphide. However, one thing they've noticed is that after putting the scrolls on display, the pigment fades and turns to glitter. So, instead of - say - a yellow painted Egyptian woman, you walk by and see that she is sparkling. But, despite her looking pretty cool, any significance of her persona should not be attributed to being shiny but to the yellow originally applied to the surface. The reason for this change is that the light in the galleries is reacting with the sulphide and eventually creates arsenic oxide.
But, the question remains: should these objects be on display? Is it better to know that these objects exist, see them and study them, despite the side effects? Or, should some buried treasure remain hidden?
Yesterday was another interesting day with the curatorial trainees that are currently visiting the Museum. As I work in the Africa section, most of the conservation for our objects is done by the Organics and by the Ceramics section. We also have a range of work for the Metals section, like the Benin brasses, some bronzes and some gold, so with visiting groups in the past, we've pretty much stuck to visiting Metals, Ceramics and Organics. But since these visiting curators come from all over the World, working with all kinds of objects, we're going to all the Conservation departments; yesterday's stop being at "Western Art on Paper" (as opposed to the studio that does the Asian prints, etc...) and an Organics studio that does a lot of work with Egyptian collections.
Anyhow, among many cool things seen yesterday, the coolest thing of note was hearing from the papyrus specialist in Western Art on Paper, also cool because I knew this woman from Wednesday yoga at the Museum but had never known what she did there. She is the one conservator who deals primarily with papyrus; paper scrolls or sections buried thousands and thousands of years ago. And, as they end up crumbling, her job brings the idea of puzzle building to the level of Zen master patience, with a whole ton of science and creative thinking tossed in.
Besides trying to put manuscripts or other pieces into some kind of coherent order for analysis, she also does scientific analysis of the pigments used on the papyrus. The Egyptians often used to use this yellow colour, discovered to be arsenic sulphide. However, one thing they've noticed is that after putting the scrolls on display, the pigment fades and turns to glitter. So, instead of - say - a yellow painted Egyptian woman, you walk by and see that she is sparkling. But, despite her looking pretty cool, any significance of her persona should not be attributed to being shiny but to the yellow originally applied to the surface. The reason for this change is that the light in the galleries is reacting with the sulphide and eventually creates arsenic oxide.
But, the question remains: should these objects be on display? Is it better to know that these objects exist, see them and study them, despite the side effects? Or, should some buried treasure remain hidden?
posted by Laura aka Transglobal Lip at 10:37 p.m.
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