University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Undergraduate Humanities Forum 2008-09: Penn Humanities Forum Undergraduate Change Research Fellows 4-2009 The Contingency of Conservation: Changing Methodology and Theoretical Issues in Conserving Ephemeral Contemporary Artworks with Special Reference to Installation Art Lizzie Frasco University of Pennsylvania, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/uhf_2009 Frasco, Lizzie, "The Contingency of Conservation: Changing Methodology and Theoretical Issues in Conserving Ephemeral Contemporary Artworks with Special Reference to Installation Art" (2009). Undergraduate Humanities Forum 2008-09: Change. 12. https://repository.upenn.edu/uhf_2009/12 2008-2009 Penn Humanities Forum on Change Undergraduate Mellon Research Fellows http://humanities.sas.upenn.edu/08-09/fellows_uhf.shtml This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/uhf_2009/12 For more information, please contact [email protected]. The Contingency of Conservation: Changing Methodology and Theoretical Issues in Conserving Ephemeral Contemporary Artworks with Special Reference to Installation Art Abstract Lizzie Frasco, College '09, Art History, Visual Studies Non-Traditional Methods for Non-Traditional Art: Conserving Art in the 20th Century Art conservation as a practice of preventing change in a useful way has recently begun to change with the more ephemeral nature of the material that increasingly characterizes late 20th-century art. Today’s neon lights, foil, newspaper, synthetic paints, soil, glue, and Magic Marker have not been tested for durability or chemical stability. Their uneven and unpredictable rate of degradation further complicates their analysis and evaluation during conservation. What are the current technical, historical, and ethical challenges in contemporary art conservation, and what do they tell us about the chances for the long-term survival of this art? Comments 2008-2009 Penn Humanities Forum on Change Undergraduate Mellon Research Fellows http://humanities.sas.upenn.edu/08-09/fellows_uhf.shtml This presentation is available at ScholarlyCommons: https://repository.upenn.edu/uhf_2009/12 The Contingency of Conservation: Changing Methodology and Theoretical Issues in Conserving Ephemeral Contemporary Artworks with Special Reference to Installation Art Lizzie Frasco Visual Studies Thesis 2009 Visual Studies Department, University of Pennsylvania Thesis Program, 2009 Advisors: Dr. Renata Holod Colette Copeland Dr. Gwendolyn Shaw Funded by the Vagelos Undergraduate Research Program and the Penn Humanities Forum. I would like to briefly thank everyone who was involved with and supported this project: my advisors, the Visual Studies thesis seminar, Frank Matero, Alberto de Tagle, my parents, Andrew Dalzell and all my interviewees, especially: Jim Coddington, Richard Leventhal, Andrew Lins, Carol Mancusi-Ungaro, Jen Mergel, Jenelle Porter, Ingrid Schaffner, Senneke Stigter and Tatja Scholte. Index Introduction.……………………………………………………………………………………….1 Chapter 1: The Inherent Problem of Installation Art…………………………………………….6 Chapter 2: Defining the Tenets of Conservation……………………………………………….19 Chapter 3: Theoretical Issues in Conserving Installation Art ………………………………….29 Chapter 4: Changing Methodology……………………………………………………………..51 Chapter 5: Analysis of Current Methods…………………………………………………...….60 Chapter 6: Conclusion……………………………………………………………………..…....86 Appendix A…………………………………………………………………………………….….i Interview with Jim Coddington.…………………………………………………………………...i Interview with Richard Leventhal………………………………………………………………..ix Interview with Andrew Lins….…………………………………………………………………xix Interview with Carol Mancusi-Ungaro………………………………………………………...xxix Interview with Jen Mergel……………………………………………………………………….xli Interview with Glenn Wharton………………………………………………………………..….lii Appendix B Appendix C Appendix D Appendix E Chapter 1 | The Inherent Problem of Installation Art Defining Installation Art The conundrum of conserving contemporary art stems from some of the genre’s greatest achievements: the freedom of materials, invention in format, cutting edge technology, site-specificity, and deliberate ephemerality. A large percentage of contemporary artworks, which include installations, performances, conceptual and time- based media works, are time and context related. Not all contemporary artworks are intended as transient, but many of them will not last as long as their more traditional counterparts in paint and marble. The problem with their preservation lies with the use of nontraditional materials combined with the difficulty of reinstalling works that are often dependent on geographic and temporal context for meaning. While many artists delight in the freedom of creating ephemeral art, as conceptually oriented art has made “the material identify of an art work…entirely of secondary importance,”1 the artwork produced is daunting for those attempting to preserve it. The materials utilized are often unstable and unpredictable in their rate of change, and thus necessitate more hasty and invasive treatment than is needed for traditional objects. As meaning is sometimes derived from these characteristics of newer materials, conservation professionals are forced to question and reconsider many of the accepted tenets of their discipline. Older models simply cannot address this kind of unpredictability in a standardized and comprehensive way, and the need for new methods is readily apparent. Contemporary art challenges the values of conservation theoretically, technically and institutionally, as the profession is in its definition dedicated to prolonging the exhibition of and physical life of artworks by preventing and reversing changes in the authentic and original art object. The non-traditional character of many late twentieth and early twenty first century stems from the post-modern deconstruction of the traditional art object and the flood of new possibilities it engendered. While curator Ann Temkin from MoMA is correct in saying “the counterpoint of mortality versus immortality has always provided an essential theme for works of art,”2 the main departure point of contemporary works is that they address the transience of life in both content and form. This significant change originates in the critique in the 1970s and 60s of the traditional and privileged art object, where artists attempted to undermine the artwork as a relic or commodity by merging art with life. From this came a rejection of the passive and detached optical contemplation of the viewer in favor of a more immersive, activated viewing.3 The dichotomies that were present then and now are defined by Martha Buskirk as “original/copy, performance/ document, object/context, high/low, representative/abstraction, or permanence/transience, with each subject to subtle combinations and overlays as well as a continuing process of 1 D.H. Van Wegen, "Between Fetish and Score: The Position of the Curator of Contemporary Art " in Modern Art: Who Cares?, ed. Ijsbrand Hummelen and Dionne Sillé (Amsterdam: Instituut Collectie Netherlands and The Foundation for the Conservation of Modern Art, 1999), 204. 2 Ann Temkin, "Strange Fruit," in Mortality Immortality? : The Legacy of 20th-Century Art, ed. Miguel Angel Corzo (Los Angeles: Getty Conservation Institute, 1999), 45. 3 Claire Bishop, Installation Art : A Critical History (New York: Routledge, 2005), 11. Chapter 1 | The Inherent Problem of Installation Art redefinition.”4 The abandonment of the traditional artwork led to the non-traditional art forms currently showcased, as contemporary artists gained the ability to create any kind of art within a wider range of possibilities than ever before.5 While this freedom and the challenging avant-garde works it produces is hard-won, the continual search for what art historian Robert Storr calls ‘freshness’ has led to a “profusion of artworks that are doomed by their very immediacy or search for immediacy.”6 The kinds of materials that contemporary artists use and experiment with have led to a canon of works that must be considered differently from traditional works in both theory and practice. The nature of installation art both embodies and exacerbates the issues identified in preserving contemporary, non-traditional artworks. While it is conceded that contemporary art generally “represents a special challenge, provides extreme experiences and causes restorers to revise supposedly secure positions,”7 installation artworks present problems in all areas – format, conception and material. The desire on the part of the artists to ‘decenter’ the art object, by removing and rupturing the front and centered viewing of works of art as embodied by the construction of perspective, have led to works that are conceptually and physically contingent on the arrangement and relationship of many parts.8 In addition to their material ephemerality, installation works also become logistical nightmares when exhibited. Since installation art has many sub- categories and manifestations, this paper will focus on installation artworks intentionally comprised of ephemeral materials but which are meant to be reinstalled (by the artist or the institution). These works are marked by their full or partial makeup of non-traditional materials and their complexity of meaning, whether physical, material or conceptual.9 These ‘material-oriented’ works are exemplars of the conservation issues facing contemporary art, as they combine the crucial intangible elements