FROM THE ARCHIVES: Culture, Cloth, Connection

By Freya Harrington, Archives Officer

When textiles in museums, galleries, archives and private collections are fragile, damaged or require mounting for digitisation or display, there is a small group of people who come to the rescue: textile conservators.

As opposed to restoration – which seeks to return an item to how it looked when first made and uses traditional non-reversible crafting techniques – conservation aims to stabilise an object in its most authentic state (determined by considering its historic, cultural, artistic and spiritual significance) and prevent further degradation.

Conservators use modern archival-grade materials and reversible, evidence-based methods based on scientific research and an understanding of an item’s chemical constituents, how they age and interact with the object’s environment. A conservator’s role requires balancing access to an object with its long-term survival.

There are few conservators who specialise in textiles in Australia; but what we lack in numbers we make up with enthusiasm. This made a recent gathering in Melbourne a joyous occasion. In late June, I was fortunate to be able to attend and speak at ‘Culture, Cloth, Connection’, a national symposium for textile conservators run by the Australian Institute for the Conservation of Cultural Materials (the professional organisation for conservators in Australia – AICCM for short) held at the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV).

Over three days, presentations were given on recent projects and research, artist processes, cultural considerations, mannequin customisation and display methods. We were also given guided tours of the NGV’s conservation studios and the newly refurbished storage and conservation area at Hamer Hall, Arts Centre Melbourne.

It was inspiring to hear about the sheer variety of textiles being worked on – from an 1840s quilt (NGV) to Patricia Piccinini’s Skywhale and Skywhalepapa hot-air balloons (National Gallery, Canberra).

Based on my work at the Archives and Heritage Collection, I gave a presentation on identifying and conserving Catholic vestments and other textiles. This was well received and concluded with numerous questions from the audience about the unique aspects of working with religious garments.

As Margaret Fletcher discusses in her PhD entitled ‘Treasured Threads: Ecclesiastical textile collections as living heritage of the Catholic Church in Australia’, vestments and related textiles differ from their secular counterparts in collections because they retain their original meaning and functions.

Most also retain their original context in sacristies around the country. The Archives holds a collection of vestments which are not in current use due to their style, historic significance or fragile condition.