Introducing Dr Caroline Kyi, Assistant Lecturer in Cultural Materials Conservation

We were thrilled last year to welcome Dr Caroline Kyi as a new Assistant Lecturer in Cultural Materials Conservation. Dr Kyi completed her PhD at the University of Melbourne, focusing on biodeterioration in cultural heritage. With over 20 years of experience as a wall paintings conservator and conservation scientist, she has worked extensively both locally and internationally. Her expertise in project management, materials analysis, and developing conservation interventions has contributed to numerous significant projects, including the conservation of the Keith Haring Mural in Collingwood for Creative Victoria and the Collingwood Arts Precinct, supported by a Living Heritage grant. Current PhD candidate Seka Seneviratne spoke with Dr Kyi to learn more about her research and teaching.

How did you get into conservation and restoration?

For me, the moment that first got me thinking about conservation came when I was sitting in a lecture on Italian Renaissance Art and Architecture during my final undergraduate year. The lecturer was talking about the conservation of the Sistine Chapel ceiling. I understood the science and thought this could be the perfect career choice for an Arts/Science graduate (me!)

How has your work evolved over time, and have any pivotal experiences shaped your approach?

My training in wall painting conservation was perhaps the most influential experience in shaping my approach to professional conservation practice. The people I had the privilege of working with and the sites I had the privilege of working on, as well as the ‘luxury’ of being a student, will never leave me. However, it was also a revelation for me to recognise that this training was only the start of this process, albeit a solid start. Nowadays I’m finding that letting go of certain ideals, or reimagining them so as to allow for new ideas and thinking to flourish, is also increasingly important to me.

One of the pivotal experiences in my career to date was working on preserving and restoring the Keith Haring Mural in Collingwood for Creative Victoria. This is an iconic outdoor mural by one of the pioneers of street art. Keith Haring was an American artist and social activist known for his bold, colourful, and energetic graffiti-inspired artwork. He rose to fame in the 1980s with his distinctive line drawings and cartoon-like figures. Haring was deeply influenced by street culture and used public spaces as his canvas, making his art accessible to all. He also advocated for AIDS awareness and LGBTQ+ rights before his death from AIDS-related complications in 1990 at the age of 31. Keith Haring visited Australia in 1984, at a time when his international reputation was growing. While he was here, he painted a large mural on the wall of the Collingwood Technical School in Melbourne.

The paint that he used for the Collingwood mural has degraded over time. The mechanisms of deterioration are complex, but to put it in fairly basic terms, in an outdoor setting like this one, environmental factors such as light, moisture and oxygen react adversely with the materials components of the paint layer, and this leads to its degradation.

We researched ways to slow down this inevitable deterioration of the original materials and prevent new forms of deterioration. We also contributed to the development of a conservation maintenance plan whereby the custodians of the site play an active and direct role in the conservation management of the mural.

The conservation of street art is a quite specific and relatively new field of conservation. It has forced me to consider whether conservation is relevant in dynamic and non-curated urban spaces, and if so, how? Some of the issues here contradict more conventional conservation values and practices.

Each site or object I encounter continues to shape my approach, and so too do the student ideas and conversations that happen during teaching.

What subjects will you be teaching, and what is most interesting to you about these?

I’ll be teaching a series of conservation science subjects together with Associate Professor Petronella Nel. Understanding how and why materials behave the way they do in terms of their scientific properties is really crucial. This helps ensure that conservators are better informed about the mechanisms of deterioration as well as the impact and efficacy of preventive and interventive options.

Are your own experiences going to impact the way that you teach, and how do you plan to engage and inspire students in these subjects?

Definitely. Professionally I have been involved in conservation projects that have been straightforward and others that have been more challenging.

Quite a few of the sites I have been involved with in a conservation capacity have contested histories – some stories are valued, others less so, others again may have been forgotten. So one of the questions I have had to grapple with is, how do you acknowledge these histories and stories in a respectful and informative way through the conservation of the fabric? And how do you do this in a way that maintains the richness of a site in all its forms and allows for the site to be reimagined for the future?

Working out why problems happen and how to handle them is important for student conservators to consider. Students should feel comfortable investigating; they need to be ready to explore, as well as respectfully contest and respond to a range of conservation approaches and outcomes in the learning space.

How are you hoping to further your research at the University of Melbourne? What research projects are you currently working on, and are there any specific collaborations or initiatives you’re hoping to undertake in the future?

I’m hoping to return to an old research theme of mine — the treatment of soluble nylon coatings used in conservation. Soluble nylon coating was widely adopted as a consolidant in the mid-1920s; it was used to conserve objects such as Egyptian ostraca, wall paintings and timber-painted panels. Later, it became known that this coating can alter over time, causing damage to objects.

While some objects have been successfully stabilised by the application of this material, others suffer from severe damage due to loss of surface layers such as paint and staining due to the presence and changing condition of the coating. Working out why it goes so wrong for some objects and what the options are for (limited) retreatment continues to interest me. I’m hoping to collaborate with colleagues from Norway and the UK to re-examine this problem for specific medieval-painted walls and ceilings.

Your work in biodeterioration for the conservation of cultural materials is highly specialised. Could you elaborate on the key challenges and innovations in this field?

When it comes to improving the long-term outcomes for objects and collections impacted by biodeterioration, measures to monitor and control the environment are the best approach. The biggest biodeterioration challenges for conservation are at sites and for collections where passive and preventive options for controlling biodeterioration are limited and/or unfeasible.

I have an ongoing interest in bioremediation, whether it is at the level of the enzyme or organisms. This is the use of the biology and/or biochemistry of organisms to provide conservation treatments. These can be enzyme systems used to break down varnish layers, for example, or sulphate-reducing bacteria to reduce damaging calcium sulphate crusts on stone monuments. I think there is great potential for using these tools in conservation, particularly for treatments when the removal or reduction of added or altered materials is required.

Biodeterioration studies often look at tropical climates. How does this research translate to the Australian context?

The seasonality of biodeterioration and biodeterioration induced by flood events is something I have increasingly observed as a challenge for the management and treatment of heritage sites in Australia. One example is the flooding in 2022-2023 of historic townships along the Murray River, which was originally a trade route. Exploring conservation management and treatment strategies that are site-specific and can respond to seasonal variations may provide better solutions for the biodeterioration of site-based cultural heritage.

Are there particular case studies, materials, or sites in Australia that you find especially compelling or unique for your field of study?

The challenges, both conceptual and practical, for the conservation of Australian street art remain unresolved for me. I find that heritage and conservation values sit awkwardly in response to the accessibility, immediacy and ephemerality of this art form. I could go on, but I am still in the process of investigating, with one of my minor thesis students, conservation ideas, options and outcomes and how we can better respond to, or at least begin to address, the conservation challenges around street art.

Another especially interesting example is the walls of Masters House on the Murray—an old heritage-listed timber and corrugated iron house on the bank of the Murray River on Gunbower Island. I’ve been working with other heritage professionals,  architects, builders, engineers and materials scientists and government heritage advisors, to assess the condition of the site and its structures and explore options for its conservation in response to its significance.

One of the fascinating things about the Masters House are the fragmentary remains of numerous layers of wallpaper and newspaper dating from the 1920s. Numerous layers of paper were applied to ‘spruce’ the house up for Christmas. These layers of paper in this flood-threatened, simple timber building on the beautiful banks of the Murray provide evidence of the occupants’ pride in their home and the maintenance of a festive tradition – the intangible memories of the site.

Dr Kyi coordinates the subjects Cultural Materials Conservation Science (CUMC90033) and Conservation Intensive (CUMC90003). She also co-coordinates Analytical Science in Conservation (CUMC90031) and the intensive Chemistry Bridging Course with Associate Professor Petronella Nel.