A Poster with a Past.

A friend brought me a wonderful poster, she had seen it while in Warsaw pasted to a wall, and passing it on another day she noticed it had some new graffiti, and then again, ripped off the wall and left on the ground.
 
The short history of this protest poster’s display, with regard to protest and then support appealed to her and she removed what was left from the wall, folded it up and brought it home to New Zealand as a memento of her travels.
 
The poster was brought to me in a folded format and in four pieces, and with it the backing remnants of many previous posters that had been pasted in the same spot. Therefore the paper was thick with aged glue and many layers of paper.

After discussions on what was important to keep, the primary poster and what the owner wanted, which was to conserve but celebrate the history by not making the tears (scars) completely invisible, I began a wet treatment that helped remove the many layers of paper on the verso (back of the work).
 
Making the most of the poster being aqueously treated I lined the work onto a backing of four overlapped sheets of Japanese tissue using a mix of wheat starch paste and methyl cellulose which would aid slipping or the desired movement of the poster to align the pieces back together, like a puzzle. The work was left to tension dry on my work bench, similar to using a Kari Bari board (Japanese dying board used to line silk and paper)

Bloodymir was once again ready for display, with all his history.
Framed and photographed by owner.