Contemporary Sculpture
Eysler Konservierung und Restaurierung
Condition
The sculpture consists of eighty one hollow rigid plastic pyramids painted in acrylic. These were originally held together using an adhesive along the pyramid edges and lateral pressure from a surrounding metal frame and wooden backing board signed by the artist. The adhesive appears to have failed causing the pyramids to separate and fall out of the frame resulting in fractures to three of the pyramids. The painted surface of the pyramids was covered in a thin layer of accumulated accretions from many years on display.
Treatment Aim
Reorder and assembly of the sculpture to its original form, repair and gap filling of fractured parts, cleaning of all the painted surface, new conservation mounting system to hold the sculpture together for return to vertical display.
Treatment
Re-ordering and assembly of sculptural form
All pyramids were visually assessed for damage and organised by colour blocks. The sculpture was reassembled to approximate the artists original pattern using a photo and finally pyramids were matched to their original location using details of the broken adhesive patterns along the pyramid edges to relate them to each other.
Assembly and gap filling of fractured pyramids
Fractured and cracked pyramids were reassembled and held together using Parafil polyester web secured with strips of Beva film. Areas of loss were gap filled using card cut to shape, retouched in appropriate colours and held in place using strips of Beva film.
Cleaning
All pyramids were dry cleaned using a soft bristle brush before light cleaning with a smoke sponge. Spot cleaning using distilled water was carried out on areas of staining or heavy accretions.
Re-mounting
As the artists original method of assembly had failed, a new method of holding the pyramids in place was required. Ethafoam blocks were cut to fit snugly inside each pyramid, neodymium magnets were inserted along the edges of the ethafoam, and a piece of card was fitted on top. The neodymium magnets held the pyramid edges together while a combination of beva strips adhered to the interior edges of a number of pyramids and polyester string fitted through every foam block was used to hold them all securely to a thin rigid backing card. Additionally blocks of wood were fitted into thirteen of the foam blocks with hot polymer glue and screws through the original backing board into these gave additional fixture points. The thinness of the supporting backing card meant that the artist signed backing board could still fit inside the neatly constructed original metal frame.
