Editorial

Dialogues around universal ‘best’ practices in conservation are challenging as are demarkations between the East and West, Europe and Asia, and the global north and south. Institutions, networks of care and materials conservation professionals have thereby struggled with ‘a long-standing epistemological debate about the nature of knowledge and expertise between dominant positivist and alternative non-positivist approaches’ (Beebeejaun et al. 2013, p. 2). What works in various geographical contexts is poised against an inherent tension between object centred and scientific processes, to those that are value based and socially situated alongside differences in institutional cultures, developmental histories and disciplinary leader’s foci.

How long cultural records, cultural assets, and art lasts and approaches for their care in tropical Southeast Asia, logically differs across values, geographic place, time scales and knowledge systems. While conservation is shaped by the integrity of the cultural record and climate for collections, their ‘integrity’ and ‘networks of care’ are geographically and culturally contingent. Yet modernism and coloniality, have drawn museums into conservation practices from the global north and modernist scientific principles, which have not always been universally applicable, costly and exclusive. This bears similarities to de Souza Santos’ (2014) epistemology of the global south where oppression, experiences of colonialisation and modernity has also produced a lived condition that is adaptable and progressive. Perhaps, for geographies outside the global north, cultural maintenance and materials conservation practices have followed their own trajectory and character (Tse et al. 2018).

This AICCM Bulletin volume responds to these issues, and the research and knowledge that has emerged out of the situated conservation concerns foremost in the Asia Pacific region. They draw attention to why and what it means to maintain and care for material culture in the global south which has been a focus of APTCCARN, the Asia Pacific Tropical Climate Art Research Network inaugurated in 2008 at Balai Seni Negara, then Balai Seni Lukis Negara (National Art Gallery) of Malaysia (APTCCARN 2023). The six papers in this volume are drawn from the challenge led conservation experiences and events in Cambodia, Philippines, Taiwan, and Thailand, and are by authors who presented papers at ‘Embracing Cultural Materials Conservation in the Tropics: The 4th APTCCCARN Meeting,’ held at Cheng Shiu University, Taiwan in 2015. With over 100 papers presented at the 6 APTCCARN meetings, these six papers represent a fraction of themes explored. We hope that the papers presented at earlier APTCCARN Meetings in Thailand and Malaysia that are not published here, will make up future publications. Often such research and knowledge does not make it to scholarly press and remains as ‘grey’ literature due to the challenges of peer review and text in English.

Julia Brennan’s paper, ‘Preservation of Clothing and Memory in Cambodia: A Collaborative Model’ presents deep reflections and socially embedded conservation actions born out of the Tuol Sleng genocide in Cambodia and the victims clothing that remain as material links to living trauma and memory studies. As the paper rightly highlights it ‘is a compelling example of the struggle to balance authenticity, access, and sustainable preservation’ and the repair of the genocide textiles in tropical climates. The author as an outsider textiles conservator is genuinely collaborative, engaging with stakeholders in a common cause and prioritising the training of local professionals ‘who know best’. This has also been a goal of APTCCARN.

The four papers by Wen-Yuan Lee and Cheng-Huang Lin; Ioseba Soraluze; Nuanlak Watsantachad; and Sufen Yen, Shumei Chen and Feiwen Tsai are situated by their localised challenges and cultural contingencies. They focus on their own collections and the fruition of technical solutions for the challenge led conditions in tropical climates. Wen-Yuan Lee and Cheng-Huang Lin’s paper, ‘Studies on the Stability of Binding Media in Retouching Materials for Exterior Painted Wooden Decoration in Taiwan’ studied the durability of typical conservation binders, Larapol A81 and Paraloid B72, for polychrome decorations of traditional temples and wooden buildings in Taiwan. In the outdoor climates of Taiwan, both were not unsuited to the tropical climates, although Paraloid B72 peformed slightly better. Also emerging from Taiwan, Sufen Yen, Shumei Chen and Feiwen Tsai’s paper, ‘The preservation of tracing paper: A case study of TRA Archives’ focused on the method development for the 10,000 engineering drawings collected during Japanese colonial governance from 1895 to 1997. In house lining methods for tracing paper, which are commonly implemented by archival agencies in Taiwan, were compared with Gortex humidification processes. The paper ‘Looking through X-Rays: The study of underlying painting in the oeuvre of Chen Cheng-po’ by Ioseba Soraluze and I-Cheng LI, investigated the technical processes and knowledge of the first-generation Taiwanese painter, Cheng Po whose knowledge extended from art training and experiences in Japan, Shanghai and Taiwan. How the localised circumstances and conditions in Japan, China and Taiwan influenced the artists choice and production processes, was a focus. Moving to Thailand, Nuanlak Watsantachad’s paper ‘Qualitative and quantitative deterioration assessment of Thai mural paintings and wall plasters from the Thailand 2011 Great Flood’, documents the damage qualitatively and quantitatively. It employs accessible and user-friendly documentation processes to establish condition benchmarks for the Wat Pa Klang Thung temple. In all papers, climate, challenging contexts and the emergence of processes from the ground up, is a common link.

Maite Maronilla-Reyes paper ‘Severe Termite Infestation: Conservation of the EDSA Shrine Oil Mural’ highlights the speed of damage that termites can inflict in the tropics with 80% of the canvas eaten since the 1986 EDSA revolution was ‘interpreted by the Filipino artist Nemesio B. Miranda’. ‘People Power Revolution’ is a large-scale mural and living memory of the protests and EDSA revolution (Epifanio De Los Santos Avenue), against martial law in the Philippines. Like the paper on the Tuol Sleng genocide in Cambodia, the EDSA mural is a site of memory and reminder of protests against martial law, so the speed of damage is acute and a reminder of how quickly access to memory and memorials can be lost.

We hope these papers broaden access to knowledge, and the situatedness and position from which conservation actions are judged and decided upon. We thank the authors who contributed and positively responded to the peer review and editorial suggestions. In particular, we thank Sabine Cotte, Anne Carter, Caroline Kyi, Catherine Nunn, Vanessa Kowalski, Emma Dacey, Eliza O’Donnell, Kirstin Philipps, Catherine Smith, for providing their views and comments, and the many others who wish to remain anonymous. As for every volume of the AICCM Bulletin, its realisation is a credit to the AICCM Bulletin Assistant Editorial Committee and members Emma Dacey, Daniel Bornstein, Ellie Thomas, Liam Holmes, Ann Fuata, Vanessa Bray, Emily Hornum, and Belinda Muir.