Note: Diary of an NUS Museum Intern is a series of blog posts written by our interns about their experiences during the course of their internships. Besides working hard and fast in their cubicles, our interns have travelled to Bandung and Malacca, organised symposiums, waded through tons of historical research and pitched in during exhibition installations. It was definitely no ordinary internship for them! If you would like to become our next intern, visit our internship page for more information!
Gail Chin is a (how many) year Fine Arts Major from LASALLE College of the Arts. She is currently on a three-months internship at The Conservation Studio. Read on to find out more about what she did!
Even though I have been practicing art making
during my three years of fine arts education in Lasalle, little did I know how
conservation is extremely vital to the survival of an artwork. Through my 3
months of internship under the conservation studio, it has enlightened me with
the knowledge and skills of preservation, to better understand the
materials that are being used to consolidate the artworks or artefacts and to become a more patient and analytical individual.
For my personal opinion of art, art is a creation
of beauty, the artist is the eye of the public, we make art to create paths and
enrich the creativity of the dull minds. However, the conservator is like the
hidden eye of the artist, working as a visual and scientific individual, the
conservator assist the artist in taking better care of their works. Before the
conservator can start the verdict of the artwork, he must first analyse the
condition of the deterioration, what the cause is,
determining the proper treatment to be treated on to the artwork. I felt almost
like a doctor, treating a patient with utmost love and care.
