Presentation
The museum is presenting the group in the same arrangement as that created by Franz West at its first exhibition in 1996. There were a few excep-tions, as West arranged exhibitions by himself and would sometimes combine different groups of artworks.
Ronald is presented in a pine showcase, which is covered at the front and the rear with trans-parent acrylic glass, fixed with screws. Probably the object was originally not presented in the case. There are indications that the frame was made in order to protect the damaged Ronald within the group presentation. At the rear of the guitar screw holes of the supposed previous mounting were found. Like the original artwork, the copy was to be presented unframed.
Conservation Goals
Part of the project was the examination of the paint layer structure and the earlier repair treat-ments. An important question was how to treat the object’s patina. The correlation between re-pairs / “patina” and their importance to the his-tory of the object was examined. To find out by whom the earlier repairs had been undertaken, people in Franz West’s working environment were interviewed. Furthermore, objects from this
particular group were compared regarding struc-ture and surface appearance. It was not possible to answer this question in the context of this the-sis. There were suggestions that the repairs and overworking was done by West himself or, with his permission, by one of his assistants.
As a result a strategy in dealing with the pres-ent surface condition was developed. Part of West’s concept is that objects can be handled by the owner. The patina which is due to the han-dling of the object is therefore part of its history.
As a result of the research into the artist’s modus operandi, the surface was accepted in its current condition.
In order to adequately stabilise the papier mâ-ché body’s structure, two methods had to be com-bined. During the work, it became evident that it would not be possible to stabilise the entire body from surface to centre. Therefore it was decided that only the surface and the subsurface areas should be treated; while not a complete proce-dure, it would strengthen the object’s structure somewhat.
Another major aspect was to develop measures to optimise the situation for transport, storage and exhibition to prevent further structural deformations when handling the object and to thus minimize damage.
Fig. 2: Our Railroad Workers and their Union, Exhibition catalogue Franz West, To Built a House You Start with the Roof.
Because of the instability of the crack in the middle part of the body and the fact that the object was not mounted in the frame, transport and handling cannot be undertaken without a high risk of damage. It was necessary to secure the unstable crack and the object itself inside the frame.
Treatment
The structural damage is similar to the insect infestation, which can be found on wooden objects. Initially, fillers for wood conservation were tested on mock-ups for their capabilities to adapt to this object. Finally, it was not possible to find a satisfying solution with fillers as they did not match the material properties of papier mâché. Fillers generally include high amounts of moisture and need long time to dry which in turn causes the material to swell and soften too strongly.
The method finally applied involves paper pins2 and a technique used in dentistry, which could be adapted for stabilisation procedures.
Ranging in diameter from 0,01mm to 1,2mm, the pins permitted filling and stabilising the insect tunnels very accurately (Fig. 3). To adhere the pins in the insect tunnels, paste was applied with a dosing system by BELO3, so it was possible to dispense a defined amount of adhesive and avoid intense weakening of the paper material by too much moisture. It was thus possible to work very quickly and efficiently which was essential for the treatment procedure.
The second part of the stabilisation process was to secure the precarious crack in the body as well as the mounting of the object in the frame.
Therefore a grid-shaped “scaffolding” was cre-ated to fit seamlessly into the uneven verso surface of the body and the head of the guitar.
The support structure is made of thin strips of corrugated board with which the vulnerable area along the crack could be stabilised and the object could be mounted in the show case in one procedure (Fig. 4).
Notes
1 Interview; Andrea Überbacher, West Archive Vienna
2 Henry Schein, Paper Pins, Maxima® Hand rolled paper points. Colour coded. Ster-ile. http://www.henryscheinbrand.com/
product.php?switchlang=de&leader=&pr oduct=9002505
3 http://www.belo-restauro.de/English/
Company/Catalogue/Painting/Dosimeter/
dosimeter.html
Author Andreas Hartl
Austrian National Library, Conservation Department, Josefsplatz 1, 1015 Vienna, Austria
andreas.hartl@onb.ac.at
Fig. 4: The verso view with the scaffolding made of corru-gated cardboard before mounting into the show case.
Fig. 3: The implementation of the paper pins.