open conservation lab shanghai museum — Transcript

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1. 0:00So today I went to the Shanghai Museum
2. 0:03East and I got to say it's an amazing
3. 0:06museum. Like seriously worth a visit if
4. 0:09you ever get a chance. I'm a big fan of
5. 0:12Asian paintings, especially the ones
6. 0:14with lots of little figures and grand
7. 0:17landscape like landscape paintings. And
8. 0:20lucky for me, the Asian painting gallery
9. 0:22had so many of those. They also played
10. 0:25some short documentaries on how to
11. 0:27appreciate landscape paintings. You
12. 0:30know, these paintings really bring you
13. 0:32closer to nature. They kind of encourage
14. 0:34you to live more harmoniously with it.
15. 0:38Back when people first started creating
16. 0:41landscape paintings, one of the goals
17. 0:43would actually to help people forget
18. 0:45about the stress and annoyances of daily
19. 0:48life. It also reflects that classic
20. 0:50Chinese idea of nature and man as one.
21. 0:56Generally speaking, a great Chinese
22. 0:58landscape painting should let you wander
23. 1:00into it, view it, travel through it, and
24. 1:03imagine living it there. There's so much
25. 1:06to say about this topic. If you're
26. 1:09interested, leave me a comment and I'll
27. 1:11make a whole other video about it. Now,
28. 1:14here's something I didn't expect. At the
29. 1:16end of the video, they also show how to
30. 1:19repair landscape paintings. It was my
31. 1:22first time learning about the process,
32. 1:24and honestly, it's so cool. That's why
33. 1:27we can still enjoy these beautiful works
34. 1:30from hundreds of years ago. Big shout
35. 1:33out to the conservators.
36. 1:35And guess what I found on the fourth
37. 1:37floor, an open conservation lab. I had
38. 1:41to say this gallery really left a deep
39. 1:44impression on me. It's not huge, but the
40. 1:47stuff inside blew my mind. It's split
41. 1:50into three parts. Part one explains why
42. 1:54we restore ancient artifacts. Whether
43. 1:57they've been buried underground or
44. 1:59carefully stored in boxes, artifacts
45. 2:02naturally decay over time, inside and
46. 2:04out. When that happens, the information
47. 2:07they carry gets harder to see. But our
48. 2:10natural desire of for beauty, our love
49. 2:13for objects and our curiosity about the
50. 2:16past push us to ask what happened to
51. 2:19them. That's where the conservation work
52. 2:22at Shanghai Museum begins. There's a
53. 2:25video showing the kinds of damage
54. 2:27different artifacts can suffer.
55. 2:29Paintings, porcelainings, bronzes,
56. 2:32lackear, you name it. Part two was the
57. 2:35most amazing part. It shows how the
58. 2:38conserv cons conservators at Shanghai
59. 2:40Museum actually fix these artifacts.
60. 2:43Different types need different methods.
61. 2:46For paintings, there are several steps.
62. 2:49Cleaning, removing the old backing,
63. 2:52fitting, remounting, and retouching. For
64. 2:55porcelainings, it's things like fitting,
65. 2:58background coloring, painting patterns,
66. 3:01and imitating glaze. for brownies,
67. 3:04especially ones missing large pieces.
68. 3:06They even use 3D printing to rebuild the
69. 3:09missing parts and put the whole thing
70. 3:11back together. So cool.
71. 3:15Part three introduces the people behind
72. 3:18all this, the conservators. Right across
73. 3:21from the exhibit, you can see an open
74. 3:24conservation lab, and there are tons of
75. 3:27tools on display used to repair
76. 3:29artifacts. Seriously, I have so much
77. 3:32respect for the conservators at Shanghai
78. 3:35Museum. They do an incredible job. For
79. 3:38the first time, I got understand how
80. 3:40these ancient artifacts are repaired and
81. 3:43how much high-tech stuff goes into it.
82. 3:45It really moved me. One sentence in
83. 3:48particular hit me hard. Why do we repair
84. 3:51Asian artifacts? Because of the pursuit
85. 3:54of beauty. I guess that's just a human
86. 3:57nature. We can't stand to see beautiful
87. 4:00things decay or get damaged. And sure,
88. 4:03beauty fades. That's the natural way of
89. 4:06things. But luckily nowadays we have so
90. 4:08many ways to restore it. This gallery
91. 4:11shows in detail how we repair paintings,
92. 4:14bronzes, Asian furniture, porcelain
93. 4:17using high-end tech like 3D painting,
94. 4:20X-ray CT scanning, elemental analysis,
95. 4:23and more. So yeah, I really recommend
96. 4:26checking this place out. It's where you
97. 4:29can see all the effort and technology we
98. 4:32put into preserving and protecting
99. 4:34beautiful things.