Lecture – Presence and Presencing: Conserving and Curating Indigenous Art from Australia

Monday, July 11, 2016 – Menschel Hall, Harvard Art Museums With works drawn from public and private collections in Australia and the United States, Everywhen: The Eternal Present in Indigenous Art from Australia explores the ways in which time is folded into Indigenous, artistic, social, historical, and philosophical life. The exhibition features many works never seen outside Australia. To prepare for the exhibition, the analytical laboratory of the Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies at the Harvard Art Museums, a world leader in conservation and conservation science, carried out the first-ever large-scale technical examination of traditional Aboriginal bark paintings. Understanding the materials used by the artists helped provide enormous insight into the long-standing practices and traditions of Indigenous painting. In this lecture, Narayan Khandekar, director of the Straus Center, and Stephen Gilchrist, Australian Studies Visiting Curator at the Harvard Art Museums and