How to cite CC-BY 3.0 License and copyright information Peer reviewed Publication dates

Between Humans and Other Things: Conservation as Material Fabric in Contemporary Art

Cecilie Gravesen

Abstract

The text considers the role of the artist observer in scientific research, by using examples from the author's recent artwork in which conservation constitutes the material fabric. Gravesen employs an anthropological view on the museum conservator grappling with objects that are considered to be imbued with a spirit, and views the schism between a scientific approach and a transcendental belief system as emblematic for the bigger question as to how we currently deal with the legacy of colonialism on western ground. The author subscribes to a view of 'spirited' objects as imbedded agents in the ethnographic museum, enabling change on a social and cultural level, and suggests artistic license as a facilitator for an understanding of the living presence of objects that is beyond the idea of metaphor or representation.

View the full article: Full text PDF

How to cite: Gravesen, C. 2012. Between Humans and Other Things: Conservation as Material Fabric in Contemporary Art. Journal of Conservation and Museum Studies 10(1):3-7, DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5334/jcms.1011201

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Copyright is retained by the author(s).

This article has been peer reviewed (journal peer review policy).

Published on 2 April 2012.

ISSN: 1364-0429 | Published by Ubiquity Press | Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.