Context and Meaning XXIII Present | Past

Start Date

Friday February 9, 2024

End Date

Saturday February 10, 2024

Time

9:00 am - 4:00 pm

Location

In Person and Online

We are pleased to announce the twenty-third annual Context and Meaning Graduate Student Conference, hosted by the Queen’s University Department of Art History and Art Conservation from Friday, February 9th to Saturday, February 10th, 2024.

How do we look at the past? How does the past shape our present–or vice versa? Such questions were particularly apt in the aftermath of the Second World War, when Theodor Adorno popularized the concept of Vergangenheitsbewältigung (“coming to terms with the past”) to explore how post-war Germans examined their role in the conflict. However, scholars such as Max Czollek and Peter Chametzky have indicated cracks in Germany’s apparent success in grappling with its complicated past. Both swap out the “past” in Adorno’s formulation for “present,” proposing instead “Gegenwartsbewältigung,” whereby our debates about the past are often proxies for coming to terms with the present. History is produced in the present, as historians of visual culture are well aware. Studies have highlighted the subjective and emotional position of the scholar towards their temporally displaced objects of study and considered how such objects are interpreted, disseminated, and canonized according to contemporary concerns. Scholars have also considered temporality in visual culture by emphasizing the ephemerality of material objects, the time-bound processes of art and image making, and how images and artworks can be read as records of their origins. Indeed, it is high time to take time seriously.

By selecting the theme of Present | Past for the twenty-third annual Context and Meaning conference, the Graduate Visual Culture Association at Queen’s University seeks to engender dialogues about how time is experienced and constructed, how we view the past through a contemporary lens, and how artworks, images, and other objects of visual culture mediate history.

Friday, February 9, 2024

Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Queen’s University
36 University Ave, Kingston, Ontario, K7L 3N6, Canada

Saturday, February 10, 2024

Online - Zoom
(Link Provided upon Registration)

Full Schedule

Register Online (coming soon)

More Information 

Shugar, Aaron

Aaron Shugar

Aaron Shugar

Professor and Bader Chair in Art Conservation

Department of Art History and Art Conservation

Research Interests

Aaron has wide ranging research interests related to the scientific analysis of art and archaeology.  He has ongoing research towards the development of non-destructive techniques of analysis including X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (XRF), fibre optic reflectance spectroscopy (FORS), hyperspectral imaging, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), and Raman spectroscopy.  Aaron ongoing research interests include historic artist’s pigments and their degradation pathways, and inorganic material sciences as applied toward the study of ancient metallurgy, ceramics, glazes, glasses.  He also is interested in the technical history of artifacts and their manufacturing processes. 

Biography

Aaron received his honours H.B.A. in Anthropology and Law & Society from York University and his M.S. in Archaeological Materials from The University of Sheffield. Aaron received his Ph.D. in Archaeometallurgy from University College London.  He co-directed the Archaeometallurgy Laboratory at Lehigh University, was a guest scientist at NIST, and a research associate at the Smithsonian Institution.  He serves on the Scientific Vetting Committee for TEFAF and as a forensic materials export for the Court of Arbitration for Art.  Aaron was the Mellon Foundation Professor in Conservation Science at Buffalo State University, and he is currently the Bader Chair in Art Conservation at Queen’s University. 

 

 

 

Choquette, Tailor

Tailor Choquette

Tailor Choquette

M.A.C. Candidate

Art Conservation Program

Stream: Treatment
Specialization: Paintings
Areas of Interest: Italian baroque art, materials analysis for authentication and exploration of forged works, conservation ethics

Tailor Choquette graduated from Niagara University in 2023 with a BA in Art History with Museum Studies and a minor in Chemistry. Through a campus work study position and an internship, she worked at the Castellani Art Museum where she was able to assist with collections cataloging, art installation and storage, and other clerical duties to grasp institutional experience. Prior to her acceptance to the MAC program, Tailor was fortunate to gain pre-program experience through Aurora Art Conservation, West Lake Conservators, and unDunn Art Services.

Morris, Sophie

Sophie Morris

Sophie Morris

M.A.C. Candidate

Art Conservation Program

Stream: Treatment
Specialization: Paintings
Areas of Interest: Technical art analysis, sustainability in conservation, 19th century European art, history of materials and techniques, wall paintings.

Sophie Morris graduated from the University of Victoria with an Honours BA in Art History and Visual Studies in 2023. Prior to her undergraduate degree, she received a diploma in Arts and Sciences from Cégep John Abbott College where she was able to explore the interconnection of knowledge across various disciplines. During her studies, Sophie volunteered at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria where she was introduced to collections care and assisted with the condition reporting of various historical paintings and drawings. With this experience, during the final year of her studies she participated in an undergraduate research fair where she presented her knowledge and observations on condition reporting and its significant connections to conservation. She continues to explore her own artistic practice, where she focuses mainly on acrylic, watercolour and gouache landscape paintings.

Gaiess, Sonia

Sonia Gaiess

Sonia Gaiess

M.A.C. Candidate

Art Conservation Program

Stream: Treatment
Specialization: Artifacts
Areas of Interest: Contemporary arts and crafts, modern materials.

Sonia Gaiess is an art historian, appraiser and emerging Conservator. She graduated from the University of Winnipeg in 2022 with the Gold Medal for Achievement in the Honours History of Art and Architecture Program. She has been working in the heritage field since 2019, with collection management, exhibition development and public programming at various institutions. She has also had the opportunity to mentor students and volunteers through her work in these settings. Sonia has been an active member of the Winnipeg arts community for many years and has enjoyed serving as a board member, advisor, collaborator and volunteer with a cross-section of groups and artists.

O’Connor, Megan

Megan O’Connor

Megan O’Connor

M.A.C. Candidate

Art Conservation Program

Stream: Conservation Science
Areas of Interest: preventive conservation, sustainability in conservation, decision-making processes

Megan O'Connor is in the Mid-Career Research Stream. Megan has a B.A. from the University of Victoria, a Master of Museum Studies from the University of Toronto, and a Diploma in Collections Conservation and Mangement from Fleming College. While on education leave from her position as a Preventive Conservation Specialist at Parks Canada, where she has worked for the last eight years,  Megan will be focusing her Master of Art Conservation thesis research on considering life cycle analysis data with material testing data to investigate the integration of sustainable alternatives to traditional artifact packing and support materials into conservation practice. She plans to develop her decision-making and risk assessment skills for preventive conservation and bring those skills back into her work at Parks Canada.