Les Silent

Description

Artist Notes

When I lived in Germany, where I studied and worked, I admired German culture, science, freedom, and opportunity. However, when the German government became a supporter of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, everything collapsed, and the idea of Germany as a haven of democracy and freedom became an illusion. The oppression and repression of freedom of expression in Germany pushed me to paint the tickets I had saved from my time there between 2007 and 2012 as a “Lex Silentii,” instead of preserving more pleasant memories. This work is a protest against German complicity in the genocide in Gaza.

Preservation Notes

MATERIALS AND CONSTRUCTION Les Silent is a physical mixed-media work, not a digital-native image. The medium field records "Mixed media on canvas" and the dimensions are 46 x 38 cm (height x width). The description records that the work incorporates materials from the artist's own travels in Germany between 2007 and 2011, that an outline map of Germany is drawn, that the phrase "Law of Silence" is written in Latin, and that an "X" appears at the left. The artist's notes state that travel tickets saved between 2007 and 2012 were painted as a "Lex Silentii". The work therefore combines a painted/drawn canvas surface with adhered commercial paper ephemera (travel tickets). The specific paint binder, adhesive, ground, and stretcher or panel construction are not recorded, and the number and placement of the ticket elements are not itemised. No condition assessment has been made; nothing here is based on visual inspection of the physical object. CONSERVATION REQUIREMENTS Canvas support: keep in stable relative humidity, avoid direct sunlight, dust with a soft dry brush only, and support the stretcher along its edges when handling. Do not use solvents on painted or sealed surfaces. Paper ephemera within the collage: travel tickets are acidic commercial stocks never intended to last. Continued deterioration (yellowing, embrittlement, ink fading) should be expected and flagged as an ongoing risk. Assessment by a paper conservator is recommended, together with protection from light, moisture, and oxygen; encapsulation of any loose or detached ephemera is recommended. Any lifting edges at collage overlaps must be consolidated before handling or framing. Because the record indicates both a canvas support and adhered paper elements, treat the work as a composite and use the more cautious paper-appropriate handling in the collaged passages: no dry-mounting, no pressure-sensitive tape, and no pressure applied to the surface. In all cases use UV-filtering glazing. Saturated reds, yellows, and oranges are the passages most at risk of fading. DIGITAL RECORD The original capture was scanned in Sweden as a TIFF master in high, medium, and low resolution variants. Those TIFF masters are held outside this archive; the file uploaded here is a converted derivative. Current asset: JPEG, 478 x 480 pixels, 56 KB. Maximum reproduction size at 300 DPI is approximately 1.6 in on the long edge. This file is a low-resolution derivative and is inadequate for print reproduction or detailed study. The high-resolution TIFF master must be sourced and uploaded before this work is sold, printed, or reproduced.

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