Anne Ramsden
Anastylosis: Childhood

1999

Anne Ramsden’s practice since the late 1990s has evinced an interest in processes involved in the storage, presentation and restoration of artworks-as-artefacts within the context of museum collections and curatorial activities. Issues arising from the restoration of artefacts are a central to the discourse contained in Anastylosis: Childhood. The artist uses ceramic children’s dishes as her raw material, which she purchases only to then break and photograph them. She then engages in repairing the fragments, using a coloured glue that makes the repair work visible. In so doing, Ramsden raises issues of object value-ascription: mass-produced consumer items are rendered precious and unique by virtue of their alteration and re-contextualization.