Decay is the material’s revenge

In a profile of the artist Sarah Sze (“A million little pieces. The sculptural maelstroms of Sarah Sze”, The New Yorker, May 14, 2012), Andrea K. Scott describes being with Sze when one of her new constructions intended for an upcoming art fair collapses. “Sze wasn’t particularly fazed. ‘What does the Gutai manifesto say?’, she said, referring to a Japanese art movement from the nineteen-fifties. ‘Decay is just the material’s revenge for being extracted from the earth.'” While an artist may have such a relaxed perspective or guiding principle, could a conservator?