1. LOUISE LOIK
EDITOR
It’s not everybody who gets
a personal invitation into
a palace, but one island
resident, Andrew Todd,
has been invited to into
royal settings more than
once. Todd is an art restorer
with decades of experience
under his belt. Over the
years he has been brought
to museums, galleries, first
nations settings and palatial
homes to rescue or assess,
works of art in need of
repair or preservation.
Two years ago, the Cana-
dian Embassy in Greece
invited Todd to Athens.
At the time, more than
artwork was in need of
repair in Greece. Todd
recalls being set up in an
apartment overlooking the
Acropolis, but being unable
to set foot outside because
of the tear-gas that ate it’s
way into the air passages
of the building in which
he was stationed. Though
the streets in many parts
of the city were in chaos,
Todd says that he man-
aged to stay on task and
restore a Canadian totem
pole that had been given to
the Canadian Embassy in
Athens in the early 70’s. It
was badly eroded and was
moved to a museum where
Todd worked on the resto-
ration. While he was there
Todd staged workshops for
peers, and demonstrations
for the public. Todd admits
to enjoying the privilege of
getting to explore museums
without the crowds. One
particularly interesting
experience he says, in when
two curators in Istanbul,
Turkey, escorted him into
Topkapi Palace Treasury.
Topkapi Palace had been
home to The Ottoman
sultans for four centuries.
One curator had the key
to unlock one door, the
other could only unlock his
assigned door. Todd was
lead through the palace to
a locked display case with a
throne. One of the curators
opened the case and Todd
began assessing the condi-
tion and restorative action
needed for the gold-plated
throne. The throne ”had
emeralds encrusted that
were this big,” Todd says,
holding his thumb and
finger apart indicating the
space of a couple inches.
The sultan’s throne, deco-
rated in giant emeralds and
pearls, had been a gift of
from a Persian ruler in the
18th century. Windsor Cas-
tle is another palace where
Todd has worked. The
restorer spent a portion of
his summer two years ago
at Windsor Castle assessing
a totem pole carved by one
of Canada’s leading West
Coast First nations artists,
Chief Mungo Martin. The
pole is in the Queen’s Pri-
vate park that Todd says is
“around the size of Bowen.”
During the time Todd was
doing the restoration he
was given a tour of the
grounds and he say’s he got
to see palace life “from the
point of view of people who
live there.” Todd spent his
time doing substantial sci-
entific testing of the sculp-
ture before coming up with
a proposal for conservation
of the totem pole.
With Todd, he takes on so
many extraordinary proj-
ects, he has to be prodded
to remember all the differ-
ent places and items. Todd
has restored Emily Carr
ceramics that had been
shattered, as well as a one
metre-tall sculpture carved
from serpentine stone in
the Winnipeg Art Gallery.
While the art was in storage
it fell over and broke into
hundreds of pieces. Todd
was called up to seamlessly
fit the pieces of the sculp-
ture back together. Todd
says that there was a fair bit
of finger- pointing and ten-
sion between departments
at the museum after that
disaster, but it had hap-
pened because the foam the
sculpture had been placed
on had not compressed
evenly under the weight
of the stone. This set it off
balance causing it to tumble
off the shelf and shatter.
Todd was also called to To-
ronto to the Royal Ontario
museum when what was
said to be “the ossuary of
Joseph” was accidentally
cracked. For Todd, he was
oblivious to the media fuss
over the ossuary. All he saw
was a piece of antiquity in
need of restoration.
“The downside” to getting
private access to museums
and artwork says Todd,
“is that I get to see what is
stored in basements; -- ac-
quired during oppressive
times.” He says that “when
all these works of art come
out,” it’s piecemeal as op-
posed to a socially coher-
ent exhibit or story. Todd
points to how Greece has
been trying to get the Elgin
Marbles from the British
Museum “but they won’t
give them back.” Similar-
ly, when it comes to First
Nations art,
“Things were lifted right
out of villages when they
(the villagers) were out fish-
ing.” As a curator he sees
the artifacts that never go
on display. ”There’s a shrine
from Friendly Cove, (on
Nootka Island, BC,) --it was
removed from the village
fully intact and has never
been exhibited. It’s in stor-
age at the American Muse-
um Of Natural History.”
Todd says that because of
his west-coast home base,
his work now focuses on
restoration of First Nations
art, and in particular, totem
poles. “I studied
conservation from point
of view of wooden artifact
world but got out here
carved wooded stuff is ev-
erywhere.”
He adds, “I’ve worked on
all the pieces in Canada
Place,” and every year, he
restores a Vancouver totem
pole carved by Bill Reid.
If you ask Todd about his
most interesting work, he’ll
say “totem poles. --Some of
them are fantastic works of
art.”
Regarding art back home,
and specifically public
art on Bowen, Todd says
he doesn’t “get involved.”
Todd says he likes art that
is inspiring. Public art, in
particular, “should make
you think.”
The mild-mannered Todd
has a few things to say
however, about the totem
pole created by a Tshim-
shian first nations artist
lying on the ground in
Horseshoe Bay. “Oh god,”
he mutters. “That’s awful
and I’ve told them,” he says,
referring to the District of
West Vancouver, who have
laid a deteriorating totem
pole down on the ground,
leaving it to decompose.
Dogs pee on it and people
sit on it, wearing off the
paint. “That’s a big mistake,”
says Todd. “The artist is
no longer alive and West
Vancouver feels the cost of
preserving it is too high.”
He adds that there is a bit of
tension between the Tshim-
shian nation and Squamish
who want their own pole.
In any case, West Vancou-
ver has posted a sign at the
pole saying that allowing
a pole to decompose is
a native tradition, ”That
tradition is highly ques-
tioned,” says Todd. Todd
points out that in the late
1900’s the missionaries in
Massett tore down the poles
and lay them as roads. Poles
weren’t preserved by the
first nations “because they
didn’t have resources;-- but
to carry that forward as
a tradition doesn’t make
sense.”
Todd says he can’t neces-
sarily decode or read the
story being told in a totem
pole in spite of all his time
among them. “They are all
complex and different.” He
says the totem poles are
both the most challeng-
ing and interesting work
and for him, it feels like
something with a bigger
meaning than just a piece
of art. “There’s an artistic
complexity, it’s a story-tell-
ing, language, so you are
working on more than the
physical material, it’s the
preservation of legends.”
Art restorer Andrew Todd has worked on a wide variety of art treasures, including
medieval suits of armour, paintings by Emily Carr and Bill Reid totem poles.
photo Louise Loik
Up close with palace treasures and priceless works of art