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In quest of gilding the old lilies

Workshop on preservation and renovation at Shilpakala Academy
9 November 2003, 18:00 PM
LIFESTYLE
By Fayza Haq
9 November 2003, 18:00 PM
A student of the preservation of art workshop held at Dhaka recently; he is seen with his subject and equipment
Thierry Olivier-Ford, 32, who have recently run a workshop on art restoration along with Jorgen Solstad, asked about his educational background, said, "I took a BA in History of Arts and The Decorative Arts (the latter includes objects, sculpture, hall interiors, furniture, silver etc.) in England. My mother, Fabianne Pfisder, from Switzerland, is an artist. While my father is English, I've always been brought up in England, and at the age of 15, I was painting by myself, mainly with oils and guache, influenced by my mother's full time painting and studio. Later, I decided to pursue a career in fine arts but changed midstream and decided to learn more about the arts themselves. When deciding my future I wasn't trying to make a living, as such. It was more a question of studies, with more of thinking about the future, what I like to do and work with."

Dwelling more on what interested him in the subject of art preservation, Olivier-Ford said, "I then met a painting conservator, while I was doing my BA and this inspired me to combine both my practical and historical skills which is what conservation is about. I took my Masters in Conservation of Easel Paintings in UK in 1996. Solstad, who is Norwegian, qualified from the university of Oslo (who is the leader of our two-member team) did a similar course in Masters from England."

Asked if he was qualified to cater to the needs of the atmospheric environment of the subcontinent, Bangladesh in particular, Olivier-Ford said, "As a fully qualified conservator we have to undertake the full understanding of different climatic environments and their effects on paintings. My colleague, Jorgen, has worked with environmental monitoring of different sights throughout Europe with a lot of European projects. I think that we could combat any problems anywhere in the world as regards our subject. I've worked as a professional conservator in terms of collection of drawings and other collections in Durban South Africa for a while at a month-long workshop."

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Explaining why had come to Dhaka, Olivier-Ford said, "My stay here has been organised through a project NORAD, which is a Norwegian regional development association."

Speaking on the particular problems that he faced at Bangladesh, Olivier-Ford said, "It is the weather conditions: the humidity more than the heat, pollution, insects: and also that there's no local knowledge. That's why we've come here to teach your staff and people how to preserve and what steps can be taken to reduce the effects of the degradation that has happened and. You have to fully understand the climate and what is involved in degrading paintings and what is happening before you can actually work on the art pieces. We've also come to give the opportunity to each student to go through two workshops, one now and another next year, and then four of the participants will be selected to go and undertake further education which is the same one as I and Jorgen have completed in some English speaking country and then return. UK has three very good programmes but there could be other possibilities."

Egged on to speak about the rapport with the local members of the workshop, and giving details about their background Thierry-Ford said, "The rapport has been excellent: we have been very pleased with the students' enthusiasm, patience and the interest.

We have been very impressed. There were four with artists' backgrounds, two from Archeology, and two from scientific background (which is interesting because conservation isn't just about art; it also involves scientific analyses, understanding of the materials and technique and processes that you will use. It's a good idea to have a mix of students, I think)."

(to be continued)