Reclaiming the Truth - Deconstructing Colonial Museums and Public Spaces by Julio Etchart and Holly Birtles

A collaboration between two practitioners – a photojournalist and a photographic artist – created by manipulating photographs of traditional colonial objects in museum and public spaces through ‘corrupt processes’ of restoration techniques. Materials such as gold leaf, varnish, wax-resin, archival glue, spit, polish and lacquering have been applied to large format negatives that are juxtaposed with the original documentation, subverting the notion of fixing or restoring. The resulting works are presented as diptychs, with the images paired with critical text quoted from a range of influential research sources. The photographers explain ‘the goal of this intervention is to challenge the toxic inheritance of the plunder of the colonial era by the agents of former imperial powers who took and sold their bounty to museums and private collections. Many of those relics are now the subject of a worldwide debate on reparation and restitution, a conversation that this project is aspiring to join.’