Speaking of English Arists...

Today at my internship at the Milwaukee Art Museum we installed this:

The artist is Cornelia Parker, and the title of the work is "Edge of England," 1999. What is it? Good question. What you see here are 216 rocks from the White Cliffs of Dover strung on over 100 wires that hang from the ceiling. I spent 7 hours stringing rocks together and we only got about 60 wires done. It's very time consuming to say the least and there are numerous problems with this piece from a Conservation stand-point. For one, the rocks are extremely chalky and very susceptible to crumbling and flaking. If you even touch the rock, chalk rubs onto your hands. Thus, after being exhibited a number of times, many rocks have chipped, crumbled, disintegrated to half their original size. Also, England has now made it against the law to collect rocks from the White Cliffs of Dover so any rocks that break - must be replaced with our spare supply - and once the spare supply is gone... well... soon there might be various holes in that veil of rocks as you see there. So that's just one of the problems. I won't bore you with the details on wire gauge and the breaking and fraying problems with them.

One thing I like about my internship at MAM is that it includes installations. I really like installing artwork. It's fun to install sculpture to the artist's exact specifications. It's fun working with your hands and making sure you're being true to the artistic intent. It makes the time go by quite quickly. And I'm very grateful that MAM Conservation does not have their interns simply make copies or write reports the whole time. It's great to jump right in and get your hands dirty - or chalky as the case may be.

Wrapping up this entry, this installation reminded me of one that we saw in York, England in St. Mary's church. The entire nave of the church was hung with little balls of horsehair from the bows of violins. I believe it was called "Echo;" doesn't it look similar?

I was absolutely enthralled by that installation - I couldn't stop taking pictures of it - and I can't wait to see the finished product of Cornelia Parker's "Edge of England". I imagine the effect will be similar, although sadly not in such a spectacular setting.

Cheers,

Emily