Conservation PhD Program Welcomes Saiful Bakhri

Inspired by the artisans from his native Indonesia and an impactful visit to the temple complex at Angkor in Cambodia, Saiful Bakhri decided early in his education to focus on conservation. He describes the 2014 trip to Angkor as “inspirational,” seeing the cooperation and collaboration between different countries in the efforts to preserve the world-famous temples.

After completing his master’s degree in cultural materials conservation at the University of Melbourne, he was able to secure funding from the Indonesian government to pursue his PhD in the Conservation of Material Culture program at UCLA, which he began in September of 2022.

During his time in Melbourne, he and a group of fellow students founded an organization called Konservaction, whose goal was to develop conservation practices in Indonesia. Now called Institute Konservasi, the organization aims to provide and develop conservation advocacy, education, training, research, and services of art and cultural materials in Indonesia.

From 2019 to 2022, Bakhri worked at the Bali Cultural Heritage Preservation Office, a technical unit responsible for the conservation of cultural heritage in three provinces of Indonesia. While there, he led a team in the conservation of movable and immovable heritage and acted as a liaison between traditional knowledge holders, experts, scientists, and customs on suspected illicit trade cases and restitution.

He has also been a conservation services consultant at the Museum Puri Lukisan in Ubud, Bali’s oldest art museum. He continues to work with them on events and programs, including conservation workshops. Last December, he held a workshop for staff from the Indonesian presidential palaces, which hold much of the work of Indonesian masters.

Bakri notes that “Indonesia’s art scene is prevailing.” Many individuals and institutions now support local artists, including sculptors, painters, dancers, and musicians, to promote what they call “living heritage.” However, historically in Indonesia, local artisans were supported by commissions from royalty. “Indonesian art was not really an individual practice back then,” he explained. But during the European influence, the artists were taught to sign their works. “So if you see classical Balinese paintings claiming to come from more than 100 years ago, and they were signed, they are likely fake, because at that time artists weren’t signing their pieces,” he added.

His studies at UCLA focus on soapnuts from the Indonesian sapindus rarak tree, which historically have been used to clean textiles. He is investigating how different communities in Indonesia prepare it and notes that it is also used in other areas of Southeast Asia. He is hoping to “embed this method to develop sustainable conservation methods of textiles collected by museums,” he explained, in order to try to “mimic the origin culture.”

Indonesia’s conservation is still developing, so the country does not have conservation material suppliers, Bakhri explained. Although there are conservation products available to purchase online, they are very expensive to buy and import, according to Bakhri. So his goal is to focus on the locally-sourced materials that could be used for the same purpose. He seeks to address the cultural importance and physical production of traditional materials for conservation treatment to better meet the environmental, social, and cultural needs of non-Western communities and how they can be incorporated into Western practice.

As for being in Los Angeles, he says it feels much like his home, known for its location in the so-called “Ring of Fire”…and its many earthquakes!