Have been busy working with different media and in different contexts over the last few months. In addition to making trompe l'oeil paintings based on collage that involve processes of breaking down and building up the image, destruction and creation, observation and reconstruction, I have also been engaged in reparing or restoring several other things.
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| work in progress collage/painting |
I was able to use Japanese Kozo paper and rice starch glue to repair the damanged the broken edges and gaps in some of the title pages of this copy of Jacob Cats 'Alle De Wercken' from 1712, and reintegrate the loose pages.
This little oil painting on an oak panel measuring 13.5 x16.5cms in a matching 'period' frame was described by the dealer on the antique market as 18th century. It is more in the style of 17th century and the wood panel and frame seem to suggest the earlier date as do several faint marking on the back that may be auction stencils, handwritten inscriptions or a graphic mongram, which remain elusive and difficult to decipher. It could however be a mid to late 19th century copy as well, or at least the frame could as it shows the slightly curved marks of a circular saw which is consistent with this date. It appears to be 'cabinet' copy after Antony van Dyck's portrait of Francois Langlois, and although it is small it is rather charming. It is no surprise that this painting was copied many times since Van Dyck's original was created in the 1630s. It has had some deep scratches and scrapes and a yellowed opaque varnish layer. I was able to carefully remove the varnish layer after several tests in the corner with various mixtures of Zecchi emulsione Cerosa and ethyl alcohol, cleaned off with white spirit. I filled the gap and retouched it using reversable watercolour paints on top of a barrier layer of diluted dammar varnish before giving it a final protective coat of synthetic varnish. It was impossible to eliminate entirely the deep scratches in the surface. I have left the frame and back of the panel untouched to retain as much as possible of the original paint surface and material evidence.
Along with other volunteers I was priviledged to be able to assist artist Nel Maerten with her giant 'sand' mosiac installation for the MA Festival in August.
Her design of flowers, fruits, butterflies, and other spiralling, organic leaf and stem like forms was inspired by the illuminated borders of the pages of books of hours that were produced in Bruges in the middle ages.
M.387 fol. 107v The Morgan Library
Whilst the installation was displayed to the public in the Stadhallen in Bruges before the closure and sweeping up of the pigment and wheatflower (not sand) on Thursday 6th August the volunteers were on duty everyday to ensure that nobody damaged it. It proved impossible to stop one tourist who was so deeply engrossed in her smart phone that she walked right across it on Sunday. We were able to repair this section that had several foot prints and lots of smudges so that it was almost invisible to see where she walked right across the centre.
Since the whole point of the installation was about beauty and impermanence it also highlighted for me the importance of being fully present to each moment, cherishing each experience with full awareness, with both focused, and peripheral vision, and appreciating the quality, significance, and value of things of beauty and meaning before they disappear.
In this case the statement 'Ars Longa, Vita Brevis' was clearly not true, as the art proved to be even more fleeting than life. Restoring and reparing the inevitable damage caused by careless negligence, time and transcience, whilst extending the life of things cannot eliminate their ultimate impermanence, but it is kinder, more caring, and less cynical to try, even while learning to let go.
