Conservator’s’ Three NOs 6/1/99
| Hi,
Warning: This email involves “bloody" content. Whoever is allergic to blood should avoid this episode.
If I am the only conservator you know, then you probably still have no idea what I am doing. Every art piece is just like a human being who will get aged, sick and sometimes accidents. The only difference is that they won’t tell you when they feel sick. The major responsibilities of art conservators are to identify the diseases, apply proper treatments or restoration, and, most of all, prevent the further damages. Well, it is certainly very nice to work on great art works which is like seeing celebrities without their make up on. You spend hours, days, or even months with them; then you realize they are just like any other human being——-no, I mean, materials: they are pigment, varnish, paper, canvas, wood and so on———Basically, we are dealing the materials put together by a human being who is or was alive. Ok, enough educative (and boring) information for today!
But this profession should not be over-glamorized. If you are expecting some fancy stories about my experience with masterpieces. Please click the Delete button NOW.
Let me introduce you three NOs for conservators. No bleeding. No sneezing. No Whoops.
Let’s start with the last one, which is easier to explain. No Whoops: Even the most experienced conservator can make mistakes. When that happens, it is highly recommended to keep quiet, calm (even better if you keep smiling), and then fix it like nothing has ever happened.
Usually nobody will ever notice the mistake except yourself. But to a novice like me, making a whoop sound is like sending a clear “help needed" message to senior conservators, who will stop whatever they are doing and come rescue. Some of them are so amazing that they know types of mistakes by the sound you make. My goal is to become a conservator with sophisticated skills and whoop no more. There is a long way to go.
No sneezing. Most of time, we are working on very delicate or fragile pieces. A sneeze will ruin all the efforts. This is an easy rule to follow except during spring time when the allergy follows me like a shadow. Certainly I don’t want to sneeze onto either art works or other conservators. So before starting any project, I should always try to figure out the safest way to sneeze to. At work, “bless you" usually means more like “bless the art work".
No bleeding. Working with paper knife, exacto knife, surgery knife, and all kind of dental tools, it is only a matter of time when conservators will accidentally cut themselves. It should not be too hard to imagine when you are hurt, the first reaction is to remove yourself from the art work. Conservation is a big part of preserving art works but it is not significant enough for a conservator to leave his or her blood as a signature on the piece. Again, sounds easy. But for a person like me whose nerves are always slower than eyes, usually bleeding won’t be noticed until I “see" the blood. One of a small rare books I restored has my “signature" on one of the pages. It happened when I was trimming the leather spine, but I ended up trimming another kind of “leather", called “human skin" (oh, it is mine). This time, I was very quiet: first, put away my bleeding finger, turn the page with another hand (try to cover the evidence) and then find a Band-Aid, fix the finger in no time. Great, nobody noticed.
I started my new job six weeks ago. In a month or so, I broke my “bleeding" record. Again, if you are expecting my blood on any painting of Asian masters, press Delete button now. Actually, I was washing a coffee container after the tea time. The pot hit the edge of sink and broke. Out of stupidity, I kept holding the pot. It is sort of dishonored for a conservator to hurt themselves by washing a coffee pot, like a soldier got injured in a toilet instead of battle field. But I still try to be professional, so here is the condition report: A straight cut by a piece of 30 degree angled glass from Krups coffee maker (this brand is not recommended): 4cm long and 0.5 cm deep, located on the index finger of right hand. (sorry I still prefer metric system) Thank God, no art work is damaged.
I didn’t whoop but, still, the sound from the breaking glasses drove three other conservator’s attention. These three women, each with at least ten year experience, displayed the most efficient emergency handling skill. B asked if stitching is needed. I said No with my conservator’s instinct: overtreatment is always bad. Then she suggested I should have my finger above heart position and soon she took care of the broken glasses——-again, tried to cover the evidence before the boss came back. At the same time, T was having the First Aid Kit out on the table, and, J, the most delicate conservator I have ever seen, was ready to “restore" my finger.
I have to say it is really my pleasure to have J “work" on my finger for I always enjoy watching her working. She is the visiting conservator from Korea and speaks almost no English. We communicate with each other by probably 100 English and 100 Japanese vocabulary, but for the unknown reason, we get along well. I have met many conservators with great skills and creative ideas but J is the only one who performs the task with great elegance. Every material will give in at her hands like magic. In less than 2 min, my index finger was beautifully wrapped with bandage and tape (wrinkle-free). She cut out a surgery glove and put it on my injured finger so that I can still work with paste. It looked so neat that my other fingers were very jealous.
It is strange I felt no pain and performed even better that day. My boss did not notice until much later B tried to show him what a great restoration piece J had done. I honestly explained to him how it happened. He was very moved by my intention of trying to save the pot but kindly suggested that I should let go next time.
“Did you cry?" Six-year-old Tess, my boss’s daughter, asked me.
“No, I laughed." I recalled myself laughing when I saw the bloody red fluid coming out. Weird but—– Tess is definitely convinced that laughter will help healing. With a cut like that, it is a miracle that the wound heals in a week. Thanks to J’s delicate work. It leaves a scar which is only visible with close inspection. Again, the greatest conservation work is not trying to disguise the repair, which is supposed to be part of history, but to reduce the damage to the degree only a conservator is able to detect.
If my English seems a bit awkward here, that is because it is not my finger’s native language. Part of the episode was done when my index finger was still wrapped. When it gets hurt, it tends to lose its ability of typing English. peng peng |
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