The Dark Side: Time, Decay, Preservation and the Museum

Abstract

All things will decay but museums are seen as places of perpetual preservation. This lecture will explore the contradictions and paradoxes involved in balancing the agency of decay with the impulse for preservation. It will explore what might be learnt from decay and models of time in the museum, including Gell’s work on time the anthropology of time and how different time models might help us think about broken things and mended things and how these operate in museum time.  The work of artists engaging with decay such as Douglas Fishbone, Julie Ryder and Jane Wildgoose will be referenced to explore different ways of thing about degradation as a process which has its own meaning. It will also explore the powerful impulse to preserve, remake and reconstitute the material world and hence sustain physical things and (re)make meaning for ourselves and others. These perspectives will be used to explore how ideas generated by active engagement with degradation and remaking might help us think differently about how objects function in museums, how – and why – they are treated physically and conceptually and the impact this may have on how visitors experience the world of the museum.

All welcome.

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[image: The natural encroachments of time’; Human Nature exhibition, Maidstone Museum © Jane Wildgoose. The Wildgoose Memorial Library. https://www.janewildgoose.co.uk/]