Objects, Memory, and Restorative Justice (A Personal Reflection on Conservation’s Meaning)

ABSTRACT

Humans and objects are deeply entangled through systems of knowledge, exchange, production and consumption. The entanglement is also emotional. Objects have symbolic power and therefore emotional charge. Insofar as the individual psyche can be a model for the collective one, thinking of the objects we each carry with us throughout life can be a helpful way to understand how objects acquire emotional significance beyond their original function, and how they are critical to identity and memory construction. This in part equates to say that what societies keep or do not keep, as well as how they keep it, is critical in defining how we deal with our past and therefore how we define both present and future. Conservators have been increasingly aware of this fact. Because of their emotional power, dealing with objects and how they shape memory can also help heal collective wounds. I argue that the emotional power of material objects could be more systematically harnessed by turning to the principles of Restorative Justice, an emerging social science that emphasizes interconnectedness within communities and societies. Restorative Justice is a useful lens through which to consider decision making in conservation, while conservation can contribute significantly to restorative efforts.

RÉSUMÉ

Les êtres humains et les objets sont profondément enchevêtrés dans des systèmes de connaissance, d'échange, de production et de consommation. L'enchevêtrement est également d'ordre émotionnel. Les objets ont une puissance symbolique et portent donc une charge émotionnelle. Dans la mesure où la psyché individuelle peut être prise comme modèle de la psyché collective, réfléchir aux objets que nous côtoyons chacun au cours de notre vie peut aider à comprendre comment les objets acquièrent une valeur émotionnelle au-delà de leur usage originel, et comment ils sont déterminants dans la construction de l'identité et de la mémoire. Cela revient en partie à dire que ce que les sociétés choisissent ou non de conserver, ainsi que la manière dont elles le conservent, est déterminant pour préciser la manière dont nous nous confrontons à notre passé, et donc la manière dont nous concevons à la fois le présent et le futur. Les conservateurs-restaurateurs sont de plus en plus conscients de cela. Du fait de leur pouvoir émotionnel, s'occuper des objets et de la manière dont ils façonnent la mémoire peut aussi aider à guérir les blessures collectives. J'estime que le pouvoir émotionnel des objets pourrait être exploité de manière plus systématique en se rapprochant des principes de la justice restaurative, une science sociale émergente qui s'appuie sur l'interconnexion au sein des communautés et des sociétés. La justice restaurative offre un angle de vue utile pour aborder la prise de décisions en conservation-restauration, tandis que la conservation-restauration peut contribuer de manière significative au processus de réparation. Traduit par Louise Klein.

RESUMO

Humanos e objetos estão profundamente envolvidos através de sistemas de conhecimento, troca, produção e consumo. O envolvimento também é emocional. Os objetos têm poder simbólico e, portanto, carga emocional. Na medida em que a psique individual pode ser um modelo para a psique coletiva, pensar nos objetos que cada um de nós carrega ao longo da vida pode ser uma forma útil de compreender como os objetos adquirem significado emocional para além da sua função original, e como são críticos para a identidade e construção da memória. Isto, em parte, equivale a dizer que o que as sociedades mantêm ou não, bem como a forma como o mantêm, é fundamental para definir a forma como lidamos com o nosso passado e, portanto, como definimos tanto o presente como o futuro. Os conservadores têm estado cada vez mais conscientes deste fato. Devido ao seu poder emocional, lidar com objetos e como eles moldam a memória também pode ajudar a curar feridas coletivas. Defendo que o poder emocional dos objetos materiais poderia ser aproveitado de forma mais sistemática recorrendo aos princípios da Justiça Restaurativa, uma ciência social emergente que enfatiza a interligação dentro das comunidades e sociedades. A Justiça Restaurativa é uma lente útil através da qual se pode considerar a tomada de decisões na Conservação, enquanto a Conservação pode contribuir significativamente para os esforços restaurativos. Traduzido por Caroline Lodi e Francisco Vieira.

RESUMEN

Los seres humanos y los objetos están profundamente entrelazados a través de sistemas de conocimiento, intercambio, producción y consumo. El vínculo es también emocional. Los objetos tienen poder simbólico y por tanto, carga emocional. En la medida en que la psique individual puede ser un modelo para la colectiva, pensar en los objetos que cada uno llevamos con nosotros a lo largo de la vida puede ser una forma útil de entender cómo los objetos adquieren un significado emocional más allá de su función original y cómo son fundamentales para la construcción de la identidad y la memoria. Esto equivale en parte a decir que lo que las sociedades guardan o no, así como la forma en que lo guardan, es fundamental para definir cómo afrontamos nuestro pasado y por tanto, cómo definimos el presente y el futuro. Los conservadores son cada vez más conscientes de este hecho. Debido a su poder emocional, ocuparse de los objetos y de cómo configuran la memoria también puede ayudar a curar heridas colectivas. Sostengo que el poder emocional de los objetos materiales podría aprovecharse de forma más sistemática recurriendo a los principios de la Justicia Restaurativa, una ciencia social emergente que hace hincapié en la interconexión dentro de las comunidades y las sociedades. La Justicia Restaurativa es una lente útil a través de la cual considerar la toma de decisiones en la conservación, mientras que la conservación puede contribuir significativamente a los esfuerzos reparadores. Traducción y revisión inicial por Ramón Sánchez y Vera de la Cruz; revisión final por Amparo Rueda e Irene Delaveris.

KEYWORDS:

• Individual and collective memory
• memorialization
• trauma
• grief
• healing
• conservation
• restorative justice

Acknowledgements

I want to thank Jennifer Evers, managing editor for the 2022 AIC postprints, and the rest of the editing team, for the thorough copy-editing of the first version of this manuscript. There are too many to thank individually but I am deeply grateful to everyone with whom I have had thought-provoking, inspiring conversations around these questions.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s ).

Notes

1 The idea that memory formation is a function of storytelling resonates very much with my personal experience. Many people in fact are familiar with the fact that the best, and often only, way to remember a dream is to narrate it as soon as possible when one wakes up, even if only to oneself. The narration organizes the incoherent flashes of visual memory. Once the story of the dream has been told, it becomes the only graspable memory of the dream. With real-life events, it is more nuanced because others may remember the same event and confirm, contradict, or complicate a narrative, but I have also observed that telling a story tends to cement its narrative. For example, when carrying interviews and oral histories, I have observed that the more often a story is repeated, the more it tends to be repeated identically, until the story is the memory and it becomes very difficult to recover aspects of the memory not covered in the oft-repeated story.

2 Their study focuses on African American and Latinx American communities. They draw on the works of prominent African American writers and activists from Marcus Garvey to Malcom X and Maya Angelou, who have emphasized the importance of knowing one’s history and the power that comes with it. In his autobiography, Malcom X details his personal journey from ignorance to pride and the dignity that came from learning the history of the kidnapped and enslaved Africans who became African Americans, a history that was absent from whitewashed textbooks (X and Haley 1965). Marcus Garvey famously wrote “A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots” (Garvey 2004). And in her poem “Still I Rise,” Maya Angelou beautifully expresses the defiant pride that comes from the connection to her ancestors, through pain, endurance, joy, and resilience (Angelou 1978).

3 I am not discussing in this essay Indigenous American objects in museums because they pose additional and specific sets of questions such as how these objects were acquired, the legitimacy of their presence in the museum in the first place, and the problem of the museum as a colonial institution. Fortunately, museums and conservators in charge of looking after these objects are increasingly addressing these questions in partnership with the Indigenous tribes and nations that created them. For similar reasons, I am leaving out entirely objects from former colonies that ended up in the museums of their former colonizers, very often through theft and looting.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Rachel Rivenc

Dr. Rachel Rivenc is the Head of Conservation and Preservation at the Getty Research Institute (GRI) where she oversees the conservation of the GRI vast special collections of archives, rare books, prints, drawings and photographs, film, videos, architectural models and contemporary multiples. Prior to that she worked at the Getty Conservation Institute (GCI) as part of the Modern and Contemporary Art Research Initiative, overseeing the dissemination and training activities for the initiative and leading research projects into the materials and processes used by contemporary artists and the conservation challenges they pose. Rachel sits on the steering committee of the International Network for the Conservation of Contemporary Art (INCCA) and is currently Director of Professional Development and Standards for the International Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works (IIC). Rachel holds a master's degree in paintings conservation from Paris 1 Sorbonne, and a PhD in Cultural History of Contemporary Societies from the Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines. She authored the book Made in Los Angeles: Materials, Processes, and the Birth of West Coast Minimalism and was the editor of the conference proceedings Keep it Moving? Conserving Kinetic Art and Living Matter: The Preservation of Biological Materials Used in Contemporary Art. Email: [email protected].