James Innerdale, Conservation Architect and SPAB Technical Adviser, celebrates Maintenance Week with an account of his cartoons.
I have been delivering maintenance training for the SPAB for a number of years, both for places of worship and secular buildings. It continues to be a popular day and it is always gratifying to see that by the end of the day those attending are seeing either their own building or the building they look after in a different way, spotting issues they might have missed before and becoming more aware of the importance of everyday preventative maintenance. The idea of 'seeing and doing'. However, the reality of putting your hand down a slimy gulley or standing outside in the pouring rain and driving wind to check your gutters are working, or that the roof tiles haven't moved, is perhaps not the most thrilling of activities and is often forgotten. So how to make it more memorable and relatable?
For centuries, cartoons have been used as a way of commenting on or satirising a serious subject through exaggeration. They are also often used to illustrate a point through humour and visual metaphor. The SPAB archive has a number from Punch from the late 19th century poking fun at the SPAB's campaign to prevent the over-restoration of St Mark's in Venice, as well as one I continue to use to illustrate the difference between repair and restoration, but raise a smile at the same time.
Here are three cartoons from a series I created for the SPAB Magazine for a number of years. These were all for the autumn edition of the magazine that promoted 'National Maintenance Week'. The first is one from a series called 'Twisted Tales' that subverted well-known fairy tales and nursery rhymes. In this instance, 'Three Blind Mice' where the farmer's wife left the mice to clear the gutters whilst she was away, but on her return the work hadn't been done, with consequences as a result!
The second is from a series that used familiar games as a way of having a bit of fun with message; in this case 'Happy Families' and the consequences of a lack of maintenance, using alliteration and exaggeration to create a family of monsters.
The third is in praise of the ladder in the context of 'National Gutter Day', and where would we be without it? Entertainingly, variations on at least one of the alternatives have become a reality since drawing it!
James Innerdale is a Conservation Architect and SPAB Technical Adviser as well as an artist, illustrator and cartoonist. For more cartoons see jamesinnerdale.co.uk and @fantasticselection
Image credits: A photograph of a Punch cartoon that hangs at 37 Spital Square, SPAB's headquarters