What we're looking at is a hand-painted hoarding,
which is five and a half meters in length 2.5 meters in height.
Hand-painted hoardings are very special to Indian cinema. You see them on the
major roadsides, and then of course the main site is above the cinema.
Indian cinema advertising tends to favour portraits of the key stars because that's the
main attraction for audiences, so you have three of India's key Bollywood actors Shah Rukh Khan.
plays Devdas. You have Paro played by Aishwarya Rai and Chandramukhi played by Madhuri Dixit.
It's a story of unrequited love as seen through this kind of
love triangle between the three main characters.
This piece is going to be displayed at Young V&A. It'll be unfurled and
you'll see the full glory of its five meter length. It'll be amazing to actually see the
bright colours and the characters come to life when they're put back out on display.
I am
Laura Ledwina and I am Senior paintings conservator here at V&A.
We want to stretch the painting because it's going on display. Right now it's rolled,
so for storage we can roll this painting.
This painting will be on the display for two years
or more and we want to have it not slack, we want to have it
good, preserved and we want to have it recessed in the wall, so it's enjoyable for everyone.
So the object is very very large. It does not fit fully unrolled in my space here in the
Conservation Studio. That's why I have it rolls on two sides, to be able to work on it. So I work on
parts and then I have to roll it and unroll it on the other side.
And in order to stretch it I need to add some strips – we call it strip lining
on the edges – for me to be able to pull it on the new stretcher.
It will be stretched in Young V&A because
it's just too large to stretch it here at South Kensington.
I'm going to work on the non-original canvas – the linen canvas –which I'm going to glue
on top of the edges of the original canvas – the original painted canvas – and that will
make it possible for me to pull and to stretch the painting on a new stretcher.
So I want to have 18 centimetres.
So I'm measuring 18 centimetres, and I'm pulling this because I want to cut this
canvas very straight, and once I pull this one strand I have a very clear line of where to cut.
So I use a medical device actually it's from dentist tools, to pull strings.
So this is my strip. And to get an even smoother edge,
I'm going to fringe one edge which I'm going to adhere to the canvas.
It's about eight eight millimetres I'm going to do. And I'm just going to pull these strings.
In order to have the edges even smoother, I'm going to chamfer the edges.
It's only for the lower bottom edge of the painting because I'm going to adhere this directly
on the back of the original paint and I want to have it as smooth as possible, so I'm going to
sound chamfer the bit with that razor blade.
I have that wooden board underneath because I do like to work on this. It's not that slippery.
And I will do that for the whole length of the bottom edge.
For the strip lining I'm going to make, or break, the edge here – it's really really harsh line here
– with that razor blade.
So when I feel it and when it's going on the back of the original canvas,
that this edge is as smooth as possible. Whereas here I feel a little bit of a edge, and here it's
very very smooth, so I'm going to try to get it as smooth as possible, so the edges are hardly felt.
So I have a Beva film strip. Beva is an adhesive we're using – glue basically – in form of a film.
And that's really good for me because I can just iron it on a prepared strip.
First I have to iron the fringe a bit. So it's nice and flat.
Beva film on top.
It's very good I can see through it's transparent silicone layer.
It
has to be glued on there very good,
because once we pull, we don't want this to be pulled off. So we want
this to be adhered very good.
So that's the last bit.
Make sure it's okay right here. A little bit into the linen canvas.
So I'm gonna pull this off here – this film.
This goes off and that one - it's really sticky – will go on the back of the painting.
For now I just leave it because I need it to cool down a bit.
To protect the surface – the front of the paint the paint layer when I'm ironing –
this is a prepared strip for the strip lining.
Gotta roll it to the other side.
Alright. So this end goes here.
This is the bottom edge, so this is where the cut edge is, so I have to be very precise.
To have it very nicely.
There is approximately one-and-a-half-centimeters-in
meters in at the edge.
Because of the fringe and the chamfering, it's very smooth.
I'm using a hot spatula – it's more or less a mini iron.
I can adjust the heat.
Because I'm ironing through a canvas I can adjust the heat. My glue – my adhesive – is
basically getting tacky at a certain temperature around 60 degrees/65. But I have to reach that
heat through the non-original lining – linen lining canvas – with a little bit of pressure.
I'm also applying another strip on top of it, so that when I pull here – so I'm going to pull quite
a lot here – so that the fringe won't be pulled off. So this is just a second security for me.
And here I need this paper in between because the Beva was applied on the gossamer
with a brush, so the Beva would potentially stop stick on my hot spatula. I don't want that.
This is what I want. This very very smooth edge, almost barely.
I can barely feel it.
So I can pull it to see if the adhesion is good.
It's really good.
What I'm doing now – check
the paint layer. And the Beva – the adhesive was quite glossy, so that's why I tried to
be very exact and have it just at this edge here, but it's really good actually.
If I can pull enough to stretch it.
Pulling on my strip lining here. Let's check it.
Yeah so it is ready to be stretched.