Created by the Canadian artist collective General Idea, \u201cMonday, Wednesday, Saturday\u201d was one of General Idea\u2019s works based on ruins or fragments \u201cexcavated\u201d from a mythical pavilion.\u00a0 The original three components traveled during the 80\u2019s between Basel-Switzerland, Eindhoven-Netherlands, Toronto-Ontario, and Montreal-Quebec.\u00a0 However were damaged during transit and the artists eventually chose to rebuild the sculptures in Toronto, leaving the original sculptures to be destroyed in Eindhoven. The rebuilt sculptures were composed of blocks of polyurethane foam on a wooden base, covered with multiple layers of pigmented plaster, and sanded down to resemble camouflage. The sculptures were shipped to the final venue by truck in skeleton crates with insufficient support, ultimately causing more damage.\u00a0 They were exhibited in Montreal, placed in storage in 1986, and never shown again, however in 2010, were donated to the National Gallery of Canada (NGC).
\nDuring her fellowship, Tasia spent the year researching these pieces and possible treatment avenues, and then commencing treatment.\u00a0 The sculptures had severe cracking propagating from their tops, delamination, and the visible foam was crumbling, friable, and discoloring.\u00a0 The NGC team\u2019s primary fear was that the entire interior of the sculpture was deteriorating in a similar manner. Initial analysis and examination lead the team to believe the foam was of an ester-type polyurethane foam, which degrades through hydrolysis and would lead to the plaster detaching from the foam.<\/p>\n
\u00a0Additionally, the NGC team was left instructions from Felix Partz, the original member of General Idea credited with designing and building the sculptures, for how to repair Monday, Wednesday, Saturday.\u00a0 The instructions, from 1994, stated that “Cornucopias: the large Cornucopias could be destroyed or else repaired with the repairs left visible in white or off-white plaster.” \n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Placed in a storage facility for 24 years and severely damaged, the polyurethane foam, wood, and pigmented plaster sculptures \u201cMonday, Wednesday, Saturday\u201d presented an excellent challenge for Tasia Bulger, Claudia de Hueck Fellow at the National Gallery of Canada in 2012. Created by the Canadian artist collective General Idea, \u201cMonday, Wednesday, Saturday\u201d was one of … Continue reading “41st Annual Meeting \u2013 Contemporary Art Session, May 31, \u201cModern Ruins Restored: The Conservation of Monday, Wednesday, Saturday\u201d by Tasia Bulger”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":171,"featured_media":7942,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[72],"class_list":["post-8703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-annual-meeting","tag-aics-41st-annual-meeting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/conservators-converse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/conservators-converse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/conservators-converse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/conservators-converse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/171"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/conservators-converse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8703"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/conservators-converse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8703\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/conservators-converse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/conservators-converse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/conservators-converse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/conservators-converse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a><\/p>\n
\nDue to these initial considerations, and not wanting to destroy them, the team investigated the possibility of foam extraction, knowing that all research and testing leading up this treatment would provide lesser-invasive alternate possibilities, influence final treatment decisions, and provide information to the conservation community. \u00a0A mock-up was then used to test producing an exo-skeleton to provide support to the plaster surface if the foam was removed.\u00a0 Cyclododecane (CDD) was found very useful isolation layer and temporary facing adhesive for this matte, uncoated multi-colored surface, where any solvent contact would have resulted with tidelines.\u00a0 This would then be coated with a stronger facing adhesive.\u00a0 During exoskeleton testing, Tasia actually found that the CDD, even with layers of butyl methacrylate and saran wrap on top, the CDD was sublimating directly into the plaster mockup, and determined it would not suffice as a long term solution for this type of object.
\nTIP: While CDD begins to cool and solidify once removed from the heat<\/b> source, <\/b>Tasia found that it was best applied with scrap<\/b>s of<\/b>\u00a0polyurethane packing foam and tongs, since polyurethane has excellent thermal insulation properties. \u00a0<\/b>
\n\u00a0<\/b>However, upon further investigation into the foam, the NGC conservation team found that the foam was actually an ether-type polyurethane, susceptible to photo-oxidation and thus was not degrading as rapidly as thought.\u00a0 From this information and with further ethical consideration, it was determined not to extract the foam and chose the lesser invasive option within Felix\u2019s parameters.
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\nFinal treatment consisted of consolidating the plaster surface with Aquazol 500, an isolation layer of B67, and filling the cracks with a mixture of Primal AC 35, hide glue, calcium carbonate, and fine glass beads.\u00a0 This treatment is still in progress and future exhibition will be limited to the National Gallery of Canada.
\nOne question requested more information about General Idea, which can be found in The Canadian Encyclopedia<\/a>,\u00a0who apparently also predicted reality TV and Facebook<\/a>.\u00a0 Another question was concerning health and safety of Cyclododecane, in regards to an image of Tasia applying CDD to the sculpture in which she was wearing gloves with a fume extractor over the sculpture.\u00a0 Since there are no current published safety standards for exposure to the chemical, the inquirer suggested a look at an AIC news article, which the author believes may be the 2006 Health and Safety article \u201cSome Chemical Things Considered: Cyclododecane\u201d<\/a>.
\nI, personally, thought it was an excellent and informative talk- and of course rather fun to hear about an artist collective that began their career by turning their home’s storefront window into fictitious locations as a joke \u00a0 \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n