Murray Favro

TEMPERATURE and relative humidity are strictly controlled in art galleries and vaults to delay the biological, chemical and mechanical damage of artworks over time. Museums have their own extreme weather in which artworks might oxidize and fade, shrink or expand, curl and crack. And the “temper” of the air—the feelings and convictions of the time that inform decision making and care for objects—can also cause enduring harms. Objects are absent or go unseen and things that are valorized in one moment may go on to blow surges of pain into the next.