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
Reviews
...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
