AIC's 52nd Annual Meeting

Changing ideas about community engagement in museums and promoting access to collections can lead to unexpected and unconventional exhibition environments, that many conservators would consider dangerous to fragile objects. When a curator chooses to mount a daring exhibition that breaks with precedent and shakes things up, how can conservators and mount makers rise to the challenge to support that effort and make sure it is just precedent that is broken, and not the precious objects themselves?

Such was the case recently in the Harvard Art Museums, when an exhibition of porcelain sculpture by the contemporary artist Arlene Shechet was combined with the museum’s collection of 18th century Meissen porcelain. The artist and curator imagined an exhibition without vitrines on pedestals and wall cases, or barriers around clusters of porcelain suspended from the ceiling. The proposal was unexpected–and even shocking. The works would be densely packed into a relatively small gallery, all within easy handling distance of museumgoers. Conservators and mount makers exercised both creativity and diplomatic advocacy to protect the objects under their care, while “making it work”.

The conservator’s primary concern was that with conventional metal mounts, the porcelain sculpture, figurines, cups, and saucers would be damaged by the mount itself if objects were grabbed, lifted, or twisted. Therefore, we would have to design mounting systems with built-in flexibility— in effect planning from the start that the objects might be handled by the public.

Thinking outside the box, an entirely novel flexible mounting system was devised to hold a variety of porcelain object types, relying primarily on adhesives, barrier tapes and coatings to allow reversible attachment of the objects to mounts and pedestals. These mounts incorporated flexible rubber elements to allow the plates, cups, figurines, and sculpture to move resiliently when being handled. This was particularly important for the dozens of plates, cups and saucers suspended from the ceiling in constellations within easy reach of the public.

While the conservators and mount makers worked to test and refine the flexible mount designs and materials, they also worked with the exhibition designer, engaging the artist and curator to modify the original plan so that more of the museum’s Meissen collection were placed under vitrines. Objects left exposed to public handling were fastened invisibly using temporary adhesives. Security measures in the gallery were increased, and the numbers of museumgoers in the small gallery at any one time were limited.

The presentation will document the development of the flexible mounting systems from rough proof-of-concept prototypes and mock-ups through to final fabrication and installation, including mistakes made along the way. Novel mounting materials included silicone RTV adhesives, tape barrier systems, flexible elastomer interface pads, as well as bulked B-72 adhesives. Observations and advice will be offered on how to provide constructive feedback to artists and curators on exhibition design, conditions of loan, and other aspects of exhibition planning.