Current projects
A note on negative heritage:
Expertise in the area of “negative heritage” has taken Julia to Rwanda and Cambodia to lead textile conservation projects at genocide memorial sites. Unlike any other textile protocols, she has developed site-specific, innovative and sensitive protocols for triage, mass treatment, and long-term care and accessibility of extremely degraded materials, deeply infused with emotion and memories.
Victims’ Genocide Clothing and Accessories, Nyamata Genocide Memorial Site, Kigali Rwanda
As the textile conservation expert consultant with the University of Pennsylvania Penn Praxis team, the challenge to preserve as much of the degraded clothing as possible required sorting types of materials by condition and designing and manufacturing a locally made custom clothing ‘tumbler’ and dust extraction system.
Tuol Sleng Genocide Prison Museum, Phnom Penh, Cambodia, site of Khmer Rouge regime torture and execution 1975-79.
This is the first time the clothing at Tuol Sleng has been cataloged or conserved. Working with Tuol Sleng staff, we photographed, built a searchable database, cleaned, tagged, and placed each textile in a pioneering microclimate storage system.
Each item of clothing tells a victim’s story – some have embroidered initials, labels, or loving repairs.
“ I am really humbled by this work and the responsibility to save these important memories. It is the first ever that the clothing and textiles have been examined, inventoried and cared for. Therefore, now they become a visual and accountable part of the archive and record of the story. They will surely provide more info about the atrocities that occurred, but mostly the human stories that are still concealed and hidden, buried literally in mold and dirt. Step by step, the clothing emerges as an important part of the story and reference for survivors and others.” Julia Brennan, on-site at Tuol Sleng, 2018
Iwan Tirta Batik Collection, US Embassy Jakarta Indonesia
Indonesia’s most famous batik artist, Iwan Tirta (1935-2010), made 25 stunning batik wall hangings for the US Embassy in Jakarta during the 1970s and 1980s. In 2015, Julia led a textile conservation workshop at the Museum Tekstil in Jakarta, training museum staff in methods of cleaning and repair, focusing on this important collection. In 2018, this important collection, now remounted and framed, is in the newly renovated Embassy.
Resplendent are two monumental batiks depicting the Great Seal of the United States. These one-of-a-kind batiks were custom-made by Iwan Tirta for the Embassy. They were a high-level diplomatic gift during the Reagan and Clinton administrations! They are a bold message of American Indonesian Diplomacy, executed large scale in the most famous of all traditional Indonesian handcrafts—batik.
Great and Good Friends
An exhibition celebrating 200 Years of U.S.-Thai Friendship, organized by the US Embassy Bangkok, and held at the Queen Sirikit Museum of Textiles 2018. Showcasing royal gifts from Thai monarchs and diplomatic gifts from American presidents – Julia conserved a magnificent royal golden robe and several other 19th c textiles. Hear about her work in the video clip.
The Launch of The Queen Sirikit Museum of Textiles and the First Textile Conservation Lab in Thailand
In 2012, The Queen of Thailand’s textile museum and conservation lab opened in Bangkok, the culmination of a five-year conservation project for Julia. This multi-year effort included the preparation of over one hundred textiles for the inaugural exhibitions; the training of a team of museum conservators; the implementation of sustainable and state-of-the-art solutions for long-term storage and display of textiles; and conservation outreach and training in Thailand.
