Fragments Shored against Ruins: Denis Byrne’s Surface Collection

Paul Gillen

doi:10.5130/csr.v16i2.1519

Cultural Studies Review 16.2 September 2010 Critical Proximity

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Published: Sep 15, 2010

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5130/csr.v16i2.1519

Keywords:

heritage conservation, archeology, Southeast Asia, Buddhism

Paul Gillen

Independent scholar

Abstract

Denis Byrne’s Surface Collection is a finely written philosophical travelogue, taking the reader on an archaeological tour of South Asia that is also a personal quest and a critique of heritage conservation. Its closely organised structure, reminiscent of baroque music, begins with an investigation of the modes of erasure or preservation of the recent past in South East Asia, shifts to an ironic narrative of futile quests for historical traces, and concludes with reflections on the clash of popular Buddhist relic worship with the values of heritage conservation. Byrne stages the latter conflict as between magical and rationalistic worldviews. Mildly dissenting, this essay suggests that although heritage conservation deploys scientific meanss, it is based on the sacralisation of the past. This motivation brings it closer to magic than to core tenets of Enlightenment, either of the Rational or the Buddhist kind.

Issue

Vol. 16 No. 2 (2010): Critical Proximity

Section

Articles (Peer Reviewed)

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Author Biography

Paul Gillen, Independent scholar

Paul Gillen is an independent scholar based in Canberra. He was formerly of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, UTS. His chief research interests are World History, the Anthropology of Religion, and the Lindsay family of Australian artists and writers.

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Paul Gillen, Independent scholar