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“Conservation. Principles, Dilemmas and Uncomfortable Truths” is edited by Alison Richmond and Alison Bracker and published by Butterworth-Heinemann, Elsevier, in association with the Victoria and Albert Museum. The book is compiled of a selection of 21 essays by a wide variety of contemporary conservation thinkers (27 in all), who represent the various fields that make up the diversified yet all inclusive landscape of conservation. It aims at representing the peculiar cross-disciplinary innateness of conservation and includes philosophers, historians, sociologists, architects, museum staff and conservators. Each voice has the chance to illuminate ideas and issues, criticize or endorse, reflect or re-examine. Consequentially an enormous amount of questions are posed, ideas challenged, principles redefined, theories disputed, and criticisms launched. According to the editors, in this current period of re-evaluation that we are witnessing, the purpose of this collection of texts is aimed at the opportunity for cross pollination of ideas between these various fields. Indeed an effort has been made to represent all facets of our complex profession. The editors propose that traditional ethics and practice have been disputed and debated over since the evolving interchange of contemporary ideas has re-evaluated the foundations of conservation theories. The tendency in contemporary conservation thinking confirms a philosophical swing towards the belief that conservation stems from social desire and is determined by decisions that are made by the stakeholders, rather than the previously accepted belief that it was an objectivity driven activity. These new ideas not only challenge the principle of objectivity but also other relatively contemporary premises such as authenticity, minimal intervention, or the role of the conservator as caretaker. Contemporary Conservation issues indisputably emerge from the growth and development of the profession. They stem outwards and may define, justify or be a validation for conservator-restorers. They germinate from concerns and uneasiness about previous definitions and are nurtured by problematic uncertainties. Conservators do not tend to be precursors (that terrain is left for the ice-breaking giants of the Arts), they are the nurturers, minders and caretakers, the problem solvers but not usually the prophets. However conservators are the architects of the definition of their profession. In the pages of this book, we are served tempting dishes that have an embracing attitude towards the future, and are capable of taking the all important prospect of a changing focus into account with their challenging views and criticisms. This collection of essays surges forth from a deep knowledge and familiarity with the profession by their authors, through the processes of internalization and contemplation, recognition and rationalization. We are thus presented with dilemmas and current unresolved issues that need to be rethought to enable them to be essentially relevant. A lot of the authors included in this collection are familiar names to us as their voices have emerged to create a representative discourse in the conservation world. They discuss, and we the passive reader-conservators head nod. Others perhaps may be classified as working conservators, who tend to be less published, simply because they are too busy working, but that does not imply that they do not have equally interesting ideas and views to propose or expose. There is a wide variety of nationalities represented which also helps to colour a more extensive palette. Jonathan Ashley-Smith writes about the development of the profession, saying that the conservator’s attitude and behaviour has been determined and varies according to chronology and context. The consideration of options available to a conservator comes from “the practical opportunities and constraints of materials” and by the way that they are resolved. However, he says that the public approval factor plays an important role in influencing what the conservator may actually feel is desirable for the object. He goes on to point out that the determination to define the profession within the realms of codes of ethics, rather than through competence and knowledge, may misguide us into thinking that there is one single set of ethics that is unanimously applicable. The understanding of diversity is what makes these collective common grounds more variable and not so rigidly valid. Ashley-Smith’s article, like other authors, chooses to outline the historical emergence of conservation issues. Indeed his summaries and conclusions are similar to those of the Canadian Miriam Clavir, voices which choose to dance a similar choreography on the same tightrope. She points out that the profession is guided by these codes of ethics, wherein the conservator juggles his competences, values and know-how, which can lead to conflict, because of the predetermined expectations of these ethical conventions. Clavir points out that alternative ways of conservation thinking come out of the perusal and reassessment of conservation codes and rules. This topic is also taken up by the Australian and New Zealand authors Marcelle Scott and Catherine Smith. In his essay “Practical Ethics”, Jonathan Kemp strikes at the rationale of definitions saying that failure is guaranteed if we use a single code of ethics as a measuring stick. The intention of these codes is to produce consensual behavior, not rules. He concludes by proposing that a solution to many dilemmas, suggesting that any conservation action that falls into the interim space between ethics and activity, between material authenticity and the validity of the conservators experience thus applied, can be justified and annotated in the work reports and records. Both Jonathan Rée and Nicolas Stanley-Price offer innovative ideas in their specific spheres. The former suggests that by the faithful reproduction of objects, we may maintain their symbolic meaning, while the latter suggests that the reconstruction of buildings in architectural conservation is a response to a public necessity, they both make interesting practical proposals with their consequential justifications on the theoretical side. Chris Caple in his piece “The Aims of Conservation” offers a quick stepped recapitulating global view of conservation and ends up by questioning how social values affect conservation and whether this will determine future purpose of the activity. Jukka Jokilehto chooses to examine the development of conservation principles, underling the themes of authenticity and integrity and the shift of importance from the tangible to the intangible values of heritage. He also tends to seek answers in an historical overview of conservation. Along with other authors, the same question is posed by approaching contemporary themes through retrospective reflection. The classic Gauguin phrasing of “Where do we come from?” and thus “Who are we?” and “Where are we going?” is appropriate. Salvador Muñoz Viñas offers us some interesting reflections in his “Minimal Intervention Revisited” essay. In fact he splits fine hairs in the analysis of the actual meaning of ‘minimal’ and ‘intervention’, concluding that the absolute extreme of this dictum would be to not do anything. Any intervention always modifies the object in some way and therefore changes the meaning, often obliging to make a choice to sacrifice some possible meanings for a ‘preferred meaning’. But this is a necessary spin-off of the conservation process. He writes “Conservators, or conservation decision-makers, need to find a happy medium between preserving each and every feature of the object … and it’s free and complete alteration to the contemporary observer’s tastes or needs.” He suggests that there may be a more appropriate terminology for the concept of minimal intervention, such as ‘balanced meaning-loss’. There is an absorbing essay by Elizabeth Pye which underlies an important observation, that the agreement about main beliefs and principles that unify the profession takes time to evolve, and that means that currently established ethical codes may not necessarily be up to date with current thinking practice. She writes about the lenience towards subjectivity, denying the neutrality of conservation practice, saying that it actually “contributes to the unfolding life of an object by instigating material change or by giving preference to a particular meaning”. She goes on to say that the significance of an object is not necessarily determined by its physical makeup, but in the meaning invested in it by the possibly transient opinions and interests of a given audience. Thus the meaning is changeable. This idea is reiterated by other authors such as Isabelle Brajer, who illustrates her ideas with examples of interventions on Danish Mural paintings. She questions the concept of authenticity, which is another notion which is currently being redefined by the collective emerging voices of contemporary conservation subjects. In this book, we may find articles which include case studies to illustrate their discourses which make for an important anchoring effect for so much theoretical adventuring. Theories that have emerged through the necessity of the apparent incongruity between the ‘shoulds’ and what we all know are the cold realities of our profession. There are articles with great interest for all branches of the profession, some that are specific, ones to read and re-read, some which will become favourites or others that are highly quotable. All areas are touched upon, from ethnological to architectural, from contemporary installations to the role of museums of living cultures. There are some essays that inspire to further thoughts or readings, others that clear up doubts, and some that perhaps make us rethink old ideas or endorse existing ones. It is definitely a recommendable book for all those who have interest in contemporary conservation thinking and a must suggestion for a gift box, competent library, students’ complementary reading material or just for the vocational conservator. (Are there any conservators who are not vocational?) Along a similar vein, and with the intention of creating involvement by public debate, a two-day symposium was organized at the Geological Society in Burlington House in London in September 2009, to coincide with the launching of the book. There was a varied group of 20 speakers, including some of the authors, as the theme of the symposium was a continuation of the book’s content, thus offering the possibility to expand discussion about the new emerging era of conservation ethics. The idea was to bring together representatives of the different strands of profession, for cross-linking and interchange, to put forth new ideas and to challenge existing principles. It was open to the general public and indeed its diffusion has been facilitated through internet. The talks are now available on the following link www.royalacademy.org.uk/..., and thus can be listened to simultaneously whilst performing one of those time consuming menial tasks in the workshop that we often find ourselves doing as technicians or alternatively whilst partaking in some other available multitasking moment of our domestic agenda. It is highly recommendable and enriching and absolutely complementary to the publication, as it does not repeat the same material. For the curious minded conservator who is interested in challenging thinking and stirring up the silted ideas that may have inadvertedly crept and settled into the residue of their thoughts, these are interesting literary and audio interludes into contemporary issues in conservation. There is a veritable “tapas” session of ideas available for conservators with an appetite to lift up their heads from the suction table, microscope, palette or scalpel and fling out that peripheral vision to look beyond their quotidian confines and for those who would like to harness new ideas and bring them home for daily use. About the author
CHRISTABEL BLACKMAN
Conservator-restorer
Email: christabel1@terra.es
Christabel Blackman is a freelance conservator-restorer of easel paintings specialized in Gothic and Renaissance Mediterranean panels and 17th to 19th century canvases.
She holds a Masters Degree in Conservation and Restoration (Universidad Politecnica de Valencia, Spain) and a Diploma in canvas and panel easel paintings (Istituto per l’Arte ed il Restauro, Italy). She has written several publications including monographies, catalogue chapters, congress papers, newspaper and magazine articles. She was born in Australia but has lived and worked in Valencia, Spain for the last twenty years.
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