Bryony Bery

I have a BA Honours and MA in History of Art from UCL.

Before starting my PhD I was Conservation Researcher at Tate where I worked on artist interviews and questionnaires.

Thesis

Volatility, Liquidity and Malleability: Replicating the Art of the 1960s

Reviewing Robert Morris' 9 at Leo Castelli exhibition of December 1968, Max Kozloff used the terms volatility, liquidity and malleability. These physical characteristics suggest the precarious nature of the objects exhibited and are the starting point for an investigation into the material, theoretical and ethical implications of sculpture replication in the twentieth century. The methodological approach used for this thesis bridges art history and conservation-based perspectives. The 1960s is seen as a key moment for the types of art objects being produced but also reproduced and a shift in practices and attitudes is traced. Concentrating on artworks made in America and Europe, artists and their works are recast to highlight the precariousness of materials and meanings, documentation and actions, performativity and duration. Issues of authenticity, materiality, authorship, historical narrative, conceptual intention and the various meanings ascribed to the term replica are considered. The purpose and status of the original or replica is scrutinised in the context of a history of replication and the relationship of surface to support, materials that act out or perform their own instability, provides a platform from which to readdress the idea of a single, finished work and its exhibitable life and afterlife within a museum today.

Research Interests

Technical art history, materials, especially those used in the 1960s by artists in America and Europe, materiality, conservation practices, replication, degradation, process art, ephemeral art.

Selected Publications and Presentations

October 2014: Undergraduate Lecture on Anti-Form (UCL)

March 2009: Presentation with Patricia Lee: Fabrication and Refabrication (The Centre for the Study of Contemporary Art, UCL)

2008/9: Editorial Board for Object, UCL's journal for graduate research and reviews in the history of art and visual culture

Autumn 2007: Co-editor of Tate Papers Issue 8

June 2005: Paper: Artist Interviews: Some Practical Implications for Conservators, The Courtauld Institute Symposium, Conservation and Interaction

Summer 2000: Article: Saving Concepts or Materials? ArtWatch UK Newsletter

June 1999: Lecture: The History of Blue, UCL Summer School

Teaching

2015-2016: Teaching Fellow UCL: The History and Theory of Conservation, History of Art undergraduate course

2010-2011, 2008-2009 and Autumn 2005: Teaching Fellow UCL: History of Art undergraduate course, The Methods and Materials of Artists

2007-2008: Teaching Assistant UCL: History of Art undergraduate Thematic Seminar course, The Body in Art

2007: Designed and wrote content for two of Tate's Artists' Techniques and Methods online courses