AIC's 52nd Annual Meeting

It is a challenging task to install tapestries or textiles of any large dimensions on the gallery wall with hanging devices. The installation often involves Velcro attachments on a slat or a frame in open display. This display method leaves tapestries exposed to constant mechanical stress that causes dimensional changes of tapestries over time: a cumulative force by gravity in combination with varying forces caused by tapestries reaction to the environmental changes. Although the mechanical impact of gravity is far much larger than the one caused by environmental condition, little is known to measure the stress caused by tapestries own weights for a duration of time.

A team of a textile conservator and an engineer/physicist developed an optical method to measure the deformation of textiles during hanging with a mockup tapestry. The method involves easily accessible tools, a digital camera and a computational program available in a common programing platform. Some preliminary results may explain and predict certain mechanical behaviors of tapestries during display as hanging. Based on the theoretical understanding with the mockup sample, the same method was applied to the tapestries hanging in the museum galleries. A case study will be presented to share the possible use of this method for monitoring dimensional changes of tapestries hanging in the galleries over time.