Plastics

Plastics are now widespread in collections, from functional
items to artworks, posing challenges for conservation. This volume from a
V&A conference explores current issues in identifying, preserving, and
managing plastic-based objects in museums, addressing decay, pollution, display,
and treatment strategies.

Over the course of the past 150 years, the development and use of artificial plastics has burgeoned. Plastics are now ubiquitous and unavoidable, from the plastic bag and other items with functional uses – such as household, office, electrical appliances and clothing – to works of art including sculpture, tapestries etc. The myriad of different plastic-based materials and the ways in which they have been treated before, during and after manufacture can leave the conservator, artist and collections manager bewildered as to their identification and hence appropriate treatment and prognosis for any particular object. This volume of papers from a conference held at the Victoria and Albert Museum is intended as a ‘marker in the sand’, a record of current perceptions and considerations of plastics within museum collections – their importance and problems (inter alia of insurance, pollution, display, decay and conservation).

Introduction

Sandra Smith

Conservation of plastics

Early cellulose nitrate coatings on furniture of the Company of Modern Craftsmen

Angela Meincke, Daniel Hausdorf, Nonie Gadsden, Mechthild Baumeister, Michele Derrick, Richard Newman and Adriana Rizzo

Conservation of plastics: is it possible today?

Yvonne Shashoua

Conservation: restoration of 20th-century collections at The Homewood (Esher) and 2 Willow Road (Hampstead)

Fiona Macalister, Caroline Cliffe, Sally Johnson, Ann Katrin Köster and Christine Lachelin

Houston - we have a problem: when flying saucers become brittle

Tim Bechthold

The conservation of polymers used in horology since the end of the 19th century: a multidisciplinary approach

Agnès Gelbert Miermon and Annick Vuissoz

Go with the flow: conservation of a floating sculpture from 1961 made from glass fibre-reinforced polyester resin

Lydia Beerkens, Sanneke Stigter, Thea van Oosten and Henk van Keulen

Educating conservation of modern materials: case studies

Friederike Waentig

Matthew Barney's Stadium: a treatment of replacement

Margo Delidow, Roger Griffith and Scott Gerson

Innovative conservation: scenarios for future collaborations

Louise Cone

Exploring photogrammetry and laser scanning of plastic sculptures

Lyndsey Morgan, Jackie Heuman, Derek Pullen and Stuart Robson

Scientific investigation

Naum Gabo's Construction in Space: Two Cones: history and materials

Beth A. Price, Sally Malenka, Ken Sutherland, Andrew Lins and Janice H. Carlson

Preventive conservation research for plastics on open display

David Thickett and Emma Richardson

Lights out! The conservation of polypropylene wall tapestries

Thea B. van Oosten, Irina Fundeanu, Clementine Bollard, Cristina de Castro and Anna Lagana

Testing treatments to slow down the degradation of cellulose acetate

Susan Mossman and Marie-Laure Abel

Collecting plastics

You collected what?! The risks and rewards of acquiring cellulose nitrate

Mary Coughlin and Ann M. Seeger

Challenge of materials? A new approach to collecting modern materials at the Science Museum, London

Fran Coles

Taking a risk: collecting for the future

Sue Prichard and Suzanne Smith

You can have a new one - it'll be better anyway! Plastic challenging art insurance

Thomas Wessel

Aspects of Design

Plastics in everyday life: polymorphous (in)authenticity

Tom Fisher

Hazards at home?

Erin Leary and Chris Youssef

Design and sustainability

Steve Akhurst

Utilising waste plastic in design practice

Rosie Hornbuckle

Artist's intent

Site-specific polyethylene: experiments in durability

Pamela Wells

A plastic story: an intimate look at the artist-material relationship

Emma Neuberg

List of contributors

• Edited by Brenda Keneghan
• Edited by Louise Egan

"...this collection of papers demonstrates the many problems we continue to face in addressing the preservation of plastics but shows that considerable progress has been made in the field. Perhaps most importantly, the papers identify new topics of research and new approaches, which give reason to be optimistic for the future of plastics as part of our cultural heritage." Studies in Conservation 54(3) (2009) 192-193
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..this collection of papers demonstrates the many problems we continue to face in addressing the preservation of plastics but shows that considerable progress has been made in the field. Perhaps most importantly, the papers identify new topics of research and new approaches, which give reason to be optimistic for the future of plastics as part of our cultural heritage.

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