CAG on museums: Mounting textiles and conservation issues

It's always been my dream to display and research textiles, so getting to learn about them and the techniques for displaying them for the Vamos Festival exhibition has been an amazing opportunity. The exhibition will be about decorative arts, and includes textile fragments from the 16th-19th century.

17th century textile fragment, Portugal

I have been working with conservation on this project because of the age and fragility of these objects, and I can honestly say I have learned more about weaving patterns, silks, leathers, and embroidery than I've ever known. There is so much specialist knowledge that one has to have to deal with the conservation and mounting of textiles that I had not accounted for previously. Because the majority of the textiles in the collection are fragments, quite small, and very delicate, many of them can only be shown lying flat.

17th century Portuguese embroidered silk

Luckily, because these textiles are going in a glass display case this will still show some of their more intricate features. Mounting the largest Portuguese textile required finding a specifically well-padded, fabric covered mount that could accommodate the light silk and embroidery found on the textile fragment. The back of the fragment shown above actually grips quite easily to the mount found with very little pinning involved. Now that a mount and the technique has been solidified, the other environmental factors such as lighting, humidity, and temperature need to be taken into account.

Back of the 17th century Portuguese textile

I learned some interesting things about silks and assessing their damage in order to choose between appropriate textiles to mount. Because of the use of synthetic dyes, a certain pattern of early damage appears as geometric slit damage, as can be seen on the textile below. This is also the result of stress and pulling to certain fibers on the textile during its use.

18th century silk altar panel

Close-up of the geometric damage

Overall, although the preparation for this exhibition has been a lot of work requiring a lot of on-the-job training on how to handle textiles, their degradation, and how best to preserve them, I feel really satisfied at having the chance to demonstrate these textiles and showcase them for the Vamos Festival. As decorative arts these objects are very stunning, and from the more practical point of view, most of these textiles belonging to an art museum are very unlikely to be displayed any time soon. There's an intrinsic value in displaying these arts for the next month so that they can be enjoyed. Working on this exhibition has demanded a steep learning curve, but I've definitely really enjoyed the research. 

CAG on museums: Community consultation and conservation

One of my favorite objects while working at the British Museum was a Hawaiian feather god head.  It is believed that this 18^th century god head is the representation of the Hawaiian god Kuka’ilimoku, but other gods were also represented by the heads that exist today. It is very possible that this specific one was collected on Captain James Cook’s third voyage in 1778.

Covered in ‘I’iwi and Mamo bird feathers, eyes of pearlshell with wooden pegs, and dog’s teeth mounted on basketry, this special and old god head is very fragile. At the time I saw it, it was in conservation to help sustain its frame and reduce any further deterioration to the best of an expert team of conservators’ ability.

  

I learned that conservators consult communities to see what materials can/should be used, if their conservation work is appropriate, and what is culturally appropriate to do to such important objects. In the case of the Cook Hawaiian feather god head, the main community consulted is of course the Hawaiian community, which is mainly done through a curator.

The curator liaises with the community to find out what would be appropriate and what would not, and the curator also liaises with the conservators to decide whether objects can travel for loan, go on display, how they are stored, as well as how far to conserve the object in question.

The sacred nature of the image is also an issue. Being a ‘god image’, conservators do not want to alter its state or use invasive means to re-attach now extinct and endangered birds’ feathers to the figure. The collection of the feathers from the O’o, ‘I’iwi, Apapane, and Mamo birds of Hawai’i was a very special act, and culturally valuable. Therefore, many of the loose feathers are also being collected whenever more come loose, as they are still an integral part of the object.

Loose feathers being saved

Consultation in conservation is key to the care of museum objects that have sensitive cultural contexts surrounding their creation, because descendants of the communities that made these objects want to ensure their cultural knowledge is used and protected in the proper context.