From its foundation until the early 20th century, the V&A amassed an array of copies in a variety of media, including photography and electrotyping. The latter, a now-obscure technology, is essentially a means of making copies in metal, which involved forming a mould of the item to be replicated, coating this in powdered graphite to make it conductive, and dipping it in an electrolyte solution. This solution, through which an electrical current was run, contained copper sulphate: the copper atoms would adhere to the graphite coating, forming a perfect impression of the original.

...

As well as showcasing many of the V&A’s historic copies, A World of Fragile Partsdisplays some of the most significant contemporary projects engaging with the copy and deploying it as a strategy for preservation. Some have responded directly to the ISIS crisis, ranging in scale from the Institute for Digital Archaeology’s massive reconstruction of Palmyra’s destroyed Triumphal Arch, to artist Morehshin Allahyari’s small resin prints of objects lost in the destruction of Mosul. These objects each have a USB memory stick physically embedded within them, on which the 3D digital file is stored, so in theory they could be perpetually remade.

Artist Andreas Angelidakis is concerned with the physical reproduction of internet ruins, while David Gissen copies the voids within structures by capturing acoustic impressions. The effort is global – the Zamani Project, based at the University of Cape Town, is producing high-resolution 3D models of important African heritage sites – and it reconfigures our understanding of what deserves to be copied, such as the architect Sam Jacob’s efforts to scan structures from the Calais ‘Jungle’ refugee camp.

This project, in particular, underscores the urgency inherent in A World of Fragile Parts. The fragility in question is not only one of material objects and structures, but also of human lives and experiences. Copying doesn’t just reconstitute the physical, it allows for cultural, emotional and political survival as well.