Art conservation has become a challenging multidisciplinary field where the professional conservators apply their knowledge of crafts, science, ethics and history of arts and technology.
Dr Marina Sokhan received an MSc in Physics (Optics and Spectroscopy) at the department of physics, Kiev State University, in 1983, and a High Course Certificate in patent law from Moscow in 1980. After six years working as a research engineer (infrared spectroscopy and electrophoresis of organic complexes) at the Kiev Institute of Plant Physiology, she left in 1986 to become a lecturer in physics at the Kiev State High School where she stayed until 1990.
After moving to the UK she became a lecturer in higher mathematics for the international baccalaureate at Southampton Technical College between 1998 and 1999, and in 2000 she received a BA (Hons) in Fine Arts Evaluation and Art History at The Southampton Institute.
Between 2000 and 2006 she completed a PhD in Conservation Science at the Materials Department, Imperial College London. Her thesis is entitled “The Surface Analysis of LASER Cleaned Museum Materials” and the project was carried out in collaboration with the Victoria and Albert Museum, Tate Gallery and the Natural History Museum. During these years she completed a number of conservation projects at these institutions and conducted a series of training seminars for conservators.
From 2004 to 2005 she was also a research fellow (corrosion analysis; mass spectrometry, prophilometry, scanning electron microscopy, Q-switch Nd:YAG LASER operation) at Imperial College London in collaboration with the Victoria & Albert Museum, Tate Gallery and the Natural History Museum. In 2005 she was appointed senior conservation tutor (materials science and laser cleaning) at the Art School and has actively helped to develop the department’s LASER technology section. She has considerable experience in LASER treatment technology and practice, and has been one of the main instigators behind the LASER Consortium and the new cleaning technology course offered in October 2006. In 2007 she was appointed Head of Conservation at the City & Guilds of London Art School.
PUBLICATIONS
- Marina Sokhan, David McPhail, Derek Pullen, Study on impact of laser irradiation of the artificially patinated bronze, Journal of Cultural Heritage 2007
- Karin Von Lerber, Marina Sokhan, Laser cleaning of silk-evaluation of possible chemical change , Journal of Cultural Heritage
- D. S. McPhail, M. Sokhan, E. E. Rees, B. Cliff, A. J. Eccles, and R. J. Chater, Rapid characterisation of surface modifications and treatments using a benchtop SIMS instrument, Applied Surface Science, 231-232, 967-971 (2004)
- M. Sokhan, P.Gaspar, D.S. McPhail, Initial results on Laser Cleaning at the Victoria and Albert Museum, Natural History Museum and Tate Gallery, LACONA IV (lasers in conservation of artworks), 11th-14th September 2001 Journal of Cultural Heritage, 4 (1001), 230-236(7) (2003).
- M. Sokhan, F. Hartog and D.S. McPhail, Surface Analysis of Laser Cleaned Metal Threads, LACONA V, 14th-18th September 2003, Journal of Cultural Heritage.
PRESENTATIONS, LECTURES AND CONSERVATION PROJECTS
- Workshop on the laser cleaning of metals and stones, Sheikh Nasser al Sabah Collection, Kuwait, March-April, 2011
- Laser Cleaning of Cosmati Pavement, the Westminster Abbey, London, 2010
- Laser cleaning of plaster casts, ICON Stone and Wall Paintings Conference, London, November, 2010
- Workshop on Laser Cleaning in Conservation, Liverpool, November, 2008
- ART2008 Non-invasive analysis in art conservation: Jerusalem, May 2008
- Conference on Plaster Casts: Making, collecting and displaying from classical antiquity to the present, Oxford, September, 2007
- 1st Workshop of London Laser Consortium on Laser Cleaning of Art Materials, London, November, 2004
- 3rd International Workshop on New Trends in Laser Cleaning, Crete, October, 2003
- LACONA V, Osnabrueck, September, 2003
- 2nd International Workshop on New Trends in Laser Cleaning, Madrid, October, 2002
- LACONA IV, Paris, September 2001
- 1st International Conference on History, Technology and Conservation of Glass, Rhodes, April, 2001
- Hermitage, St.Petersburg, Russia, Lecture for museum conservators, 2001
- State Russian Museum, St.Petersburg, Russia, Lecture for conservators, 2001
- State Russian Archive, St.Petersburg, Russia, Lecture for conservators, 2001
About the image: Dr Marina Sokhan demonstrating laser cleaning to second year BA Conservation students.