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Rosie H. Cook

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Asialink+AsiaSoc.23March(1)

2017 Asialink Arts Residency

Crazed Puppets 04  Crazed Puppets

bundengan-01 This is not a Kowangan

aptccarn5 #APTCCARN5

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Today was the opening of the latest art show at my workplace, “The Light of Silence”. It featured three artists but I only had eyes for one, Tsai Kao Ming 蔡高明. So much so that I kind of embarrassed myself asking if any were for sale, as if I would ever have that kind of money. But I really just wanted to own them all! So here they go, into my virtual museum/art collection. #蔡高明 #tsaigaoming #paintings
I am interested in any feedback on this process I have been using — you may have seen it mentioned in my Instagram stories. I have been making woven wool infills for losses on this very brittle, hundred-year-old woollen textile. Initially I tried using only felted wool but the difference in texture was so obvious and it didn’t look right. So I wove several small woollen pieces, felted them with a haze of yellow-brown wool roving (slide 2), and then cut shapes out to match the holes (slide 1). They are then sandwiched between dyed nylon net to hold in place. None of these are perfect (in the third slide with the red pin, the patch alignment is off by a few degrees; also my weave is less tight than the original due to only having a heavier yarn on hand — wool is not very popular here in the tropics!). However I do feel like it does the job in terms of disguising distracting rodent and insect damage on this textile, so as not to draw attention away from its significant features. It was a bit scary when I first started cutting up my weavings but they hold together well thanks to the needle-felting process and do not unravel unless I want to fluff the edges up for a better blend with the original. #textileconservation #conservator #textilerestoration #textiles #thisisconservation #wool
The plight of the textile conservator: curved needles and where to find them. I am feeling bereft after breaking one of my precious non-surgical curved needles just now. Ironically, just seconds before I had been remembering my dream last night, of finding an antique sample needlebook with curved needles in every size and curvature, all in sparkling condition. I have some surgical needles but they were ordered sight unseen and they are very small, so I keep them for the finer work. Luckily I still have 5 more of these larger curved needles — but reminding me to stock up again soon! Who are your preferred curved needle suppliers? What are your preferred sizes? I always end up with the tiniest fiddly needles when I order online.... #textileconservation #needles #curvedneedle
I recently had the opportunity to write up the story of my bundengan experiences, published online in Garland Magazine — there’s a link in my bio to the very long article in question. I also did an interview last week for Garland’s podcast, which I will hunt down a link for tomorrow #Repost @garlandmagazine ・・・ The mystery of a musical cape... "As a conservator invested in decolonising collections, I wished to engage with the owners of bundengan’s music culture in order to understand the instrument’s past and current values, including traditional knowledge of how to build, tune and play this instrument." In our current issue, Rosie Cook goes in search of the rare Bundengan musical instrument from Indonesia and discovers a melodious revival. You can hear her talk about the experience and the issues it raises in our latest podcast. @rosiehcook #bundengan #bundenganwonosobo #garlandmag #crafttravel
#throwback to this day in 2012 and an alternative spelling of my name on a government receipt in Sri Lanka 🇱🇰 #mrsroseekook #newhashtag
I woke up at 6am and spent an hour and a half refreshing the #makingconservation hashtag on Twitter, so I could follow this morning’s session at 2019 National Conference of the Australian Institute for the Conservation of Cultural Materials in Melbourne. My own video presentation came immediately after MaryJo Lelyveld’s keynote “Sustainability principles for conservation: mitigation, adaptation and resilience” and I was very grateful for the live-tweeting which allowed me to get some insights on MaryJo’s really great presentation. It also reassured me that my presentation “Conservation and climate change: Meaningful engagement in the face of Inevitable Near-Term Social Collapse” would make more sense contextually! I’m so grateful to all the people who messaged me and sent me photos — these first two are from Lisa Mansfield, who first convinced me I should make a video submission despite being unable to attend. Thanks so much to my kind friends for reassuring me this somewhat Mad Max conceptualisation of conservation, inspired by Jem Bendell @professily paper on Deep Adaptation, was reasonably well received at the #AICCM. #conservator #thisisconservation #conference #deepadaptation
「愛犬」”The Beloved Dog” by Yu Fang, 1962, oil on canvas. From the opening today of Kaohsiung Fine Arts Museum’s 25th anniversary exhibition, “The South as a Place of Gathering”. From the artist’s statement: “In 1962, the works of Monet, Cézanne, and Picasso gave me a great influence, and this work was produced... The dog is sick, the children are distressed, giving care, and the pity of the scene is in harmony with the painting, so it is made into a sketch. Later, on the day of the exhibition, I was surprised by the fact that Monet’s “Breakfast” impressionist style was compared with me.”
#Repost @whatisbundengan is happening this weekend and it’s AMAZING!!! ・・・ Acara resmi dibuka dengan alunan tembang dari Pak Undung @kemdikbud.ri diiringi petikan Bundengan dari Pak Munir dan Pak Buhori. Ngabean malam ini disulap jadi syahdu, Den! #whatisbundengan #wib2019 #ngabean #bundengan #berceritadalamkesederhanaan
My sister just sent me this photo of me (future conservator mixing paints in a lab coat?) knowing me, trying to colour-match a nice teal-green 😂. @katherinedavid7187 will be able to tell me what year/how old I was, based on hair colour and dummy I would guess 3 or 4 maybe? #quelleartiste
Setting up studio number 3! I’m very grateful that I’ve been allocated a room next to the storage area so I can work more efficiently... instead of having to move the hundred or so textiles I’m cleaning for this project back and forth to my already overflowing studio the other side of campus! I will be working on other projects in my own studio in the mornings when the light is better, then afternoons here, and then one day a week at the National Science Museum — here’s hoping I don’t lose any of my favourite tools along the way! #conservator #thisisconservation #rosiesallwhites
Today’s procrastination in between writing sessions comes in the shape of “Imazighen: The vanishing traditions of Berber women”, by Margaret Courtney-Clarke and Geraldine Brooks (technically research because of the relationship of nomadic peoples to landscape...). I originally was drawn to the Berber weaving traditions, but I’m so infatuated with the pottery I had to share some photos with their captions. This book was published in 1996, and it’s interesting to think how much must have changed over the past 23 years, for better or for worse. I am guilty of being irritated by coffee table books documenting “ethnic tribes” à la “Before they are gone”. But thinking today about how I might approach such a project myself — the documentation of endangered cultural practices — I am grateful for the changes that technology brings. Yes, mobile phones might spoil the visual effect of photos, but how wonderful to be able to immediately share the photos taken, and to be able to continue the conversations started with the people you encounter after any kind of “fieldwork” visit so that your documentation is part of their story, and returns to them, and is also just a small part of their own documentation of their story. How important also to re-adjust one’s own positionality as a researcher or photographer, and acknowledge who we are and the role we play, how we are perceived and the impact of our interactions within other communities. To be clear: I have no specific criticisms directed at the authors, and I’m glad they have documented and shared their four years of work. I am just grateful to be enabled by technology and contemporary approaches to cultural heritage conservation. #berber #conservator #textiles #worldcultures #pottery #berberwomen
I *swear* on my ancient, decrepit, many-times-brought-back-from-the-dead MacBook Air, that this is the last piece of conservation research I ever write. On it. This year. Why do I KEEP writing papers and presentations? The agony... hopefully this is my last deadline of 2019. Shout out to #absolutehumiditybook by @tessmaunder... and also can you spot the #bundengan (hint: hidden in the batik). #thisisconservation #homeoffice #procrastinators
DELICIOUS! What a result cleaning silk upholstery with polyurethane make-up sponge (after first using the brush vacuum technique!). The interns I am working with were blown away to discover the glossy gold and brown silk underneath thick grey dust. Posted with kind permission of my colleague Mr Tiger Wu, Head of Conservation at the National Science Museum, where I am currently working and supervising interns on textiles projects one day a week. #textileconservation #textiles #conservator #upholsteryconservation #furnitureconservation #thisisconservation #silk #oddlysatisfying #powerwashingporn #glowup
Today I’m at the National Science Museum and during my lunch break I was able to attend a session on “Communications between Conservators and Museums” at the 2019 International Conference on Contemporary Challenges for Museums”. I also bumped into Mathew Trinca, the keynote speaker and Director of the National Museum of Australia, who was surprised to hear I am also Australian (I still don’t have a real Australian accent!). Back to work now! #rosielovesteal
Today I made a mini sewing table with windows, based on the one we were shown at the Japanese Textiles Conservation Course in August (seen top and bottom in following photos). The windows pop in and out and slide around as needed. Super handy for accessing the middle of large, fragile textiles! #textilesconservation #conservator #sewing #DIY
Most of the time I can’t believe how fast time passes. But here I’m astonished to discover it has only been 4 years since I worked in Guizhou, China, for a company doing the multimedia exhibitions for the launch of a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was such a bizarre time in my life (and I have had some bizarre times), and utterly miserable — working from dawn to midnight, often for 30 days straight, and then heading back to Melbourne for a few days before turning around and going back to China — all set in the most astonishing beautiful landscapes, with the site access requiring 1.5+ hour of hiking up steep mountains. But I didn’t suffer anywhere near as much as the local populations. I learned so much about the cruel bureaucracy of bargaining for World Heritage Site status, and witnessed the local people chased out of their ancestral homes (whether by money, coercion, brute force, or simply by running bulldozers over their homes), just to meet the UNESCO zoning standards. Everything was rushed and angry and sometimes scary — from the unsafe building practices where a wrong step would see you falling down a cliff, to the Director of the Department for Propaganda censoring our exhibition content over and over yet refusing to give us an official version. I cannot believe this was just 4 years ago — so much has happened since. I’m so lucky to live in Taiwan, and yet China looms again on the horizon, threatening and violent from Xinjiang to Hong Kong.
I couldn’t be there in person but I got to watch my wonderful smart James graduate via livestream from my desk at work! I am so proud of him and his official status as Master of Humanitarian Assistance ✅ 👨‍🎓 #deakinuniversity
Not quite 50 shades of grey but the 9th shade (2.2) was the right one! There’s not a huge amount of difference at first glance (especially if looking at just one layer!) but the right tone of browny-grey coloured net melts very discretely into the faded grey wool it will be supporting. I have tons of this sickly-coloured netting (the “original” swatch) and it seems to take up my new Lanaset dyes nicely, which is great news! #conservator #textileconservation #conservationdyes #conservationdyeing #lanaset #netting #textiles #dyeing
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