En-trance

Walking along a circular pathway, one enters the second area where disinfection and cleaning happen—the Conservation Room. White noise gradually takes over the room. A strong scent of disinfection work permeates the air. Here, ozone is produced through a simple procedure where ultraviolet light shines on the air—like what sunshine does— in order to kill germs effectively. Even though UVC disinfection is widely used in medical equipment or in our everyday cleaning at home, such cleaning could cause considerable damage. Staring at it with naked eyes is inadvisable, nor is exposing to its odor for a long time. In addition to the smells, the room is shrouded by noises coming from different angles and at different frequencies. This is a new sleep-aid technology that helps people fall into a stable sleep more easily and stay away from other noises that could disrupt the sleep. By creating a masking effect and blocking out sudden changes in noise through the use of a consistent sound at a stable frequency, it can be seen as a purifier “to restrain noise by noise.” Meanwhile, an audio file explaining the ongoing procedures is played, in which every note on the cleaning solemnly affirms the conditions and rules to be observed during each step of the conservation. Coming to the conservation work station, one sees a glowing 3D-printed replica of a sacred statue on the station. Some fluorescent agents visible under black light can be seen on some parts of a transparent membrane-shell created after a vacuum form mold of a replica of the artifact as if they were smoke-smeared dust and grease, or a sacred aura. The 11 notes about cleaning included in the audio file summarize the research of the artist-in-residence program and discuss the finding of different standards of imagination and understanding of two categories (human and non-human), which speaks well to the material condition presumed by the installation. The complex refraction of the narrative, therefore, creates a spatial situation not limited to visual perception. By constructing two rooms— an archive and a conservation room—an intersection is created between two specific situations in which objects are read and viewed in respective contexts. This allows the audience to witness the conservation procedure in museums. Through different elements, such as lighting, air, time, and substances, it also recalls one’s memory about daily cleanings and highlights the emphasis and absurdity to preserve our own history as human beings. When sacred statues leave the place of worship and become part of a new order in museums, it indicates an awkward and sudden shift of human beings’ views on the values of material objects. By including the ritual of “filling” in the consecration of wooden statues, this work addresses the complexities of the act of human beings ascribing “sacredness / spirituality” to an object, in contrast to explanations science provides. Attempts to explore obscurities between material and spirit, as well as inconspicuous animism, are shown in the representation of decontamination procedures exercised on objects by museums. How do faiths and history find their presence again in archives