Cultural heritage is passed down to us from previous generations. Our heritage is in our houses, places of worship, public buildings, in the ground we walk on and the objects we treasure. Our heritage lives not only in the tangible but also the intangible, our history, our language and our legends. The tangible and intangible feed into one another to help us understand our own and other cultures.
Value is the driving force for conserving an object, without value an object is likely discarded. This value may be aesthetic, historical or economic to name just a few. An object for which its values have overcome that of its base physical use, is something that will require conserving as a marker for the values ascribed.
It is a conservator’s job to ensure that objects with value are preserved for future generations to interpret. This is done using two aspects of conservation, interventive and preventative. Interventive conservation is where something is applied directly to an object to arrest a deterioration factor and increase the life of an object. For example, this could be removing dirt from the surface of a spear head or consolidating a flaking paint layer of a painting. Preventative conservation is where steps are taken to reduce the likelihood of damage occurring in the future. This could include pest management or relative humidity and temperature control.
In recent years, treatment approaches have moved away from restoration and towards conservation. The difference may seem small but the outcome is very important. Conservation preserves all parts of the object with the hope of stopping deterioration processes and retaining evidence of manufacture and use. Restoration will involve replacing damaged parts and refinishing in the hope of altering the object to how it originally appeared. The difference is ultimately one of ethics, the practice of restoration does not fall within the guidelines of the ethics of conservation and is reflected in the work on display.
The aim of this exhibition is not only to display the work undertaken by our year but to also to draw attention to conservation as a subject. Many conservators, when asked about what they do, get questioned about wildlife and the environment conservation, as not many people are aware of heritage conservation. This exhibition aims to help change this misconception and bring to light the importance of our work.
