Inside Conservation Study Day with Colette Fu

Conservation Study Day at the Getty Research Institute (GRI) brings conservators, curators, archivists, artists, scientists, and others together to talk about an object in the GRI collection that presents display and conservation challenges.

The group discusses how the piece was made, the materials used, and how best to approach the preservation of the work.

In 2022 the focus was artist Colette Fu’s pop-up books, which use her photographs to document the traditions of ethnic groups in China.

The group came to Getty’s GRI lab on April 14 to hear Fu’s presentation on her work, materials, and methodology. “I enjoyed hearing about Colette’s background and her travel experiences and how this inspired her work,” said attendee Maira Hernandez-Andrade. “I also enjoyed listening to her talk about how each book required a very specific process in terms of the folds and the paper she used.”

Dr. Rachel Rivenc, head of conservation and preservation at the GRI, had some insights to share. “Colette’s work is fascinating because it blurs the boundaries between photography, books, sculpture, installation, and storytelling. They are exquisitely engineered and impeccably crafted, but also complex and delicate.”

Fu exchanged knowledge with conservators on the mechanics of book opening and spines. But, says Rivenc, conservation requires more than just material understanding. “To be equipped to preserve them [Colette’s books], we need to understand as much as possible about how they are made, and also their meaning and how the artist wants them to be experienced.”

We also had the opportunity to look at an artwork titled Wings of Silver. It depicts the Miao tradition of the Sisters’ Rice Festival. To create this work, Fu used kirigami, a version of origami, where the paper is cut as well as folded.

This was the GRI’s 5th Conservation Study Day. In addition to the above-mentioned personnel, the GRI has also hosted holographers, poets, and essayists at the events. “By putting our brains together,” says Rivenc, “we learn about all the aspects of the object and can approach its preservation in a way that really respects its identity and is authentic. We create knowledge that’s bigger than the sum of our parts!”

Fu’s presentation was both informational and personal. She spoke about her childhood, growing up in the ’80s in Virginia (including her high school graduation photo, a classic ’80s glamour shot), and the influences that led her to becoming an artist.

Elina Eder, a participant and graduate intern at Getty, said: “It was so touching to learn how Colette’s desire to learn more about the communities connected to her family history led to the stories she told. Not only that, she found her very own medium to do so—an unusually hands-on and material-based way of working with photography.”