People and Places – August 2023

Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW)

Paper Conservation

The team has recently welcomed intern Rebecca Clendenin from Queens University in Toronto. Rebecca will be working at the Gallery for three months on a range of tasks including processing works for exhibition and loan. The loans program is back up and running after a moratorium, and works are being prepared for loan to institutions including Bendigo Regional Art Gallery and QAG/GOMA. Kate Hughes and Rebecca Clendenin have been treating Thy Kingdom Come by Marikit Santiago, a 1.7 x 3-metre painting on cardboard, for loan. Before commencing treatment, they met with the artist to interview her about how she wanted her work cared for, looking at stabilising vulnerable areas of the work before travel, and long-term care. Lois Waters has been preparing works for the upcoming Brett Whiteley Studio exhibition Chapters 1959–1969, which will examine Brett’s work from this period. Lois has also been busy working on changeovers across the Gallery including the Contemporary Australian and Asian Galleries.  Keyeele (Kiki) Lawler Dormer has been continuing work with the photography team on a significant project to digitise the work of women artists in the collection. To date, Kiki has prepared over 670 works for photography, allowing these works to be made available on the AGNSW website, and in turn increase their potential for display, loan and research. She has also been working on the new Library display of artists books, Pandemic Days. Grant Hawkes has completed mounting and housing refresh work on the upcoming exhibition at Brett Whiteley Studio, and finalised the changeover of the Haus Yuriyal oil pastels that are currently on exhibition at the Gallery. He has also prepared Francisco de Goya prints for display and is preparing Honore Daumier prints for upcoming display. He is continuing to mount sizeable new acquisition collections to the Gallery from Jim Masselos, Robert Dein and Gael Newton gifts, alongside various other Australian and International new acquisitions. Grant will also be involved in the upcoming exhibitions and the new Library display. Analiese Treacy has been preparing works for the upcoming Hoda Afshar photography and film exhibition, which will open at the Gallery on 2 September.  Analiese has also been working on a group of works from Lismore Regional Gallery as part of a flood recovery and assistance project. The entire paper conservation team worked on the deinstallation of the National 4. Song Cycle by David Sequeira, made up of 340 A4-sized drawings on paper, had been hung using Lascaux sticky dots. This proved to be a very successful display method but required specialist conservation skills to safely deinstall.

Frames Conservation

Genevieve Tobin in collaboration with Selina Halim (from the Paintings team) presented a seminar in July at the AGNSW on ‘Mouldable, Peelable, Semi-Rigid Solvent Gels from xPVAc and Borax: Preparation of Gels and Practical Applications for Cleaning Gilded Objects and Paintings’.  As part of this event, Gen and Selina demonstrated the potential of xPVAc-b solvent gels (developed as part of ongoing research into cleaning of gilded surfaces) for the cleaning of gilded frames, paintings and objects. Gen will be presenting a paper on xPVAc-b gels for cleaning gilded frames at ICOM–CC Triennial in Valencia in September, and will soon be leaving the AGNSW to take up a Mellon Fellowship in the Frames Department at the National Gallery of Art (NGA) in Washington DC. This is a wonderful opportunity for Gen, and we wish her all the best in this new role! Barbara (Basia) Dabrowa has recently gone on long-service leave overseas, and during this time will be taking the opportunity to attend the 20^th ICOM–CC Triennale Conference in Valencia in September!

Reproduction Framing

Tom Langlands has been working on three frames for the Australian 20^th Century galleries. The frames are based on early Sydney modernist Parker frames and have been taken from cues from similar works by the artists in the collection. He has been working with Genevieve Tobin reproducing ornaments for the back edge of the Dicksee frame. Also, an oval display panel was made for a recently acquired Debra Kelly work, and a number of box frames for collection works.

  

Paintings Conservation

The team welcomed Madelyn Smith, a University of Melbourne student, for three weeks in the lab. Madelyn treated a new acquisition by Valerie Strong as well as helping with various other tasks.

Celine de Courlon has been working with other departments on building works in the North and South Gallery buildings. Celine is working in close liaison with the curators on the exhibition changeovers for both Gallery buildings and has joined the team working on the Biennale 2024. Selina Halim assessed paintings for a collection exhibition that will be presented in the Kaldor Family Hall at the same time as the Kandinsky exhibition. She will start treatment of these paintings shortly. Selina and Andrea Nottage started a major conservation project on Phillips Fox’s Autumn showers. The painting treatment will take eight months to complete. Madeleine Ewing has been busy preparing paintings for a new exhibition at the Brett Whiteley Studio as well as a new hang of the Kaldor Family Hall and taking part in The Nationals 4: Australian Art Now de-installation. Simon Ives is back from a long holiday in Europe and back working on the outward loans program as well as doing various other tasks such as assessing new acquisitions. Melissa Harvey has been busy assisting with all projects, exhibitions, changeovers, and loans. Melissa will manage the stretching of Rodel Tapaya’s work Do you have a rooster, Pedro? (Adda manok mo, Pedro?), a 3 by 7 metre painting that will be displayed in the North Building. The team facilitated a Bruker workshop at the Gallery in May during which several paintings from the collection were analysed with their M6 Jetstream and their Elio.

Objects Conservation

Bronwyn Tulloh recently rallied the objects conservation team to clean and wax the outdoor Yayoi Kusama sculpture together. It went very well until it rained on the team just before they finished! Bronwyn also assisted with changeovers to the 20^th century collection displays, including preparation of an installation artwork made of netted onion bags by Lauren Berkowitz. Ash Gilmour is assessing and preparing a variety of works for an exhibition changeover at Brett Whiteley Studio. She has also been travelling recently to condition report and install the Archie 100 touring exhibition, including trips to the Gold Coast and Darwin. Sofia Lo Bianco is currently undertaking the mammoth task of working with our registration and installation teams to deinstall the incredible sculptural installation by Adrian Villar Rojas from the historic oil tank gallery. These huge but fragile works require careful handling, extensive documentation, and conservation treatment. Kasi Albert condition reported and prepared almost 170 ceramics from the AGNSW collection for a new (and very full!) exhibition—brick vase clay cup jug—which was installed recently. Kasi is also currently deinstalling works in The National 4: Australian Art Now, including numerous complex installation works, which have been acquired. All of the objects team has been contributing to work associated with the movement of some large collection works to some new off-site storage. This has included some artworks that have not been displayed or assessed previously, so it has been an interesting opportunity to see some fascinating items and assist with their documentation and photography. The team also said goodbye to French intern Aourelle Cohadon, who returned home after five months at the Gallery.

Time-based Art Conservation

Carolyn Murphy and Juanita Kelly-Mundine are working on the Australian Research Council Linkage project: Precarious Movements: Choreography and the Museum. A new dance commission KŌIWI by Victoria Hunt was recently performed at AGNSW and forms one of the project’s case studies. Read Victoria’s artist interview here: https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/art/watch-listen-read/read/artist-interview-victoria-hunt/

The whole team—TBA Conservators Lisa Mansfield, Emma Ward, and Asli Gunel, and TBA Technician Jonathan Dennis—is researching and developing care plans for collection works based on obsolete tech and/or software. Our deep dive reinforces the need for a holistic approach and collaboration to adequately care for TBA as we seek expertise from AGNSW AV Exhibitions and ICT teams, and external contractors in specialist areas of electronics and software.

We are looking forward to interacting with some stellar 1990s CD-ROM art and archived materials again! Rebecca Barnott-Clement, Lisa Mansfield and Asli Gunel attended disk imaging training, led by Dr Cynde Moya (Swinburne University) for Archiving Australian Media Arts: Towards a method and national collection. The project seeks to develop a best practice method for stabilising and preserving Australian media arts heritage and to investigate approaches to access and exhibition of this heritage. Research has been supported by multiple ARC Linkage and Discovery grants as well as a current LIEF grant to support the expansion of the Australian Emulation Network using the Emulation as a Service Infrastructure (EaaSI) framework.

TBA Conservation is gearing up to work on, and support our AV colleagues with, the Volume festival. Angela Goh and Sam Smith are just two of the fantastic artists presenting new works in the G8 Tank space: https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/whats-on/events/volume/

  

Exhibition and Loans Conservation

Sarah Bunn has departed the Gallery temporarily to take up a nine-month position at the State Archives in Kingswood. Frances Cumming returns to the exhibition role after work on a major project focusing on the Chinese Art Collection at the Gallery. Frances is currently working with the team on the deinstallation of the Adrian Villa Rojas work in the North Building Tank, and leading preparations for the arrival of the Kandisky exhibition, which will open at the Gallery in early November.

Preventive Conservation

Jessica Gray-Hart has been managing the Gallery’s IPM treatments, both low-temperature and anoxic, for the busy exhibition schedule and influx of new acquisitions. The Gallery’s new Isolcell Nitrogen Generator has made anoxic treatments efficient to run and monitor with automated humidity control and an in-built temperature sensor.

Work is continuing on the development of a new Art Incident reporting system, with a demo version developed and released to other departments for review and feedback.

An intensive environmental monitoring program is being undertaken across the new exhibition building to assess and analyse data trends in the first year of the building being open to the public.

Australian Museum

Collection Care and Conservation

As part of AMAGA 2023, conservators Rehan Scharenguivel and Silvia Da Rocha co-presented a talk with Dr Mariko Smith, Manager First Nations Collections and Engagement, on the theme of ‘discomfort’. Their talk, ‘Not the Colonial Museum?’, spoke on the history of natural history collecting, the harm of historic colonial practices, and what echoes we experience today. The talk sparked a lot of interesting feedback. It was great to see a few conservators at AMAGA!

In June the Museum held a special event to unroll one of the largest ngatu (bark tapa cloth) from Tonga. The ngatu, Ngatu Me’a’ofa, was originally gifted to the Sydney Opera House on its opening in 1973 and was then acquired by the Australian Museum. It was measured on the day at 29 metres long by 16 metres wide. This event gave us the opportunity to undertake a full condition assessment and digitisation of the ngatu. The project was led by Heather Bleechmore, with the help of Melissa Holt, Kyra Kim, and Rehan Scharenguivel, in collaboration with multiple departments across the Museum. Due to the size of the ngatu it had to be transported (using a truck and crane) to the Blacktown Leisure Centre, where it was unrolled over the multiple open basketball courts. It was a huge day and an amazing team effort! 

Treatment projects

Sophie Phillips is currently treating a yellow-tailed black cockatoo (Calyptorhynchus funereus), which took a literal nosedive when a wire broke during its re-installation. The specimen’s beak was badly cracked by the impact and the skin on the breast split open. So far, the beak has been stabilised using Paraloid B72 to reattach a section, and Japanese tissue to stabilise cracking and flaking. The open losses have been filled with a modelling paste. The skin on the breast is very dry and brittle and rejoining the two sides is not possible, so Sophie is now working to bridge the large split in the skin using Japanese tissue, with EVA and starch paste. Once this area has been stabilised it will be inpainted and further treatment will be undertaken on the beak to return the specimen to a realistic appearance.

Exhibitions

Bilas

Bilas: Living Culture opened in June to showcase the diverse and vibrant cultural material of Papua New Guinea. This was the first time the new acquisitions from the Southern Highlands of Papua New Guinea were displayed with guidance from community members on their assemblage.

Interesting specimens from Life and Geosciences collections were prepared and installed, including several birds-of-paradise species, hornbill (Anthracoceros sp.), cassowary (Casuarius casuarius) and cus cus (Phalanger breviceps) mounts. Sheldon Teare also installed an array of shells, insects, and mammal teeth for the exhibition.

Wild Planet

Silvia Da Rocha has been working on an array of specimens added into our Biodiversity gallery. Silvia repaired one of our very rare quetzal (Pharomachrus antisianus) mounts and oversaw the safe installation of various pinned Odonata (dragonflies and damselflies), a polar skua (Stercorarius maccormicki), a pair of toucans (Ramphastos vitellinus) and Goliath beetles (Goliathus sp.).

 

Gallery redevelopments

Several permanent galleries have been de-installed, creating a lot of work for the whole CC&C team. Hundreds of Life and Geoscience specimens have been removed from one half of the Surviving Australia gallery. These specimens are working their way through pest management processes prior to condition assessment and rehousing for storage. The Pacific Spirit gallery has been de-installed and required the construction of large stillages to house large poles and slit drums. These galleries will be refurnished in the coming months.

Australian National Maritime Museum (ANMM)

Jillian Colrain from the Masters of Cultural Material Conservation program was with us for three weeks as part of the internship process. Jill’s major project was working on a large silver-plated centrepiece that slowly evolved into  more of a hazardous materials and complex treatment project than was anticipated. Jill identified both the likely presence of a mercury tin mirror and the possibility of arsenic-contaminated textiles (though not analysed yet, precaution is always wise!)

Collection care

Tegan Anthes has been contracted to aid Agata Rostek-Robak and the team to develop the Collection Safety and Incident Response Plan (disaster planning).

It was with great relief that O’Sullivan Conservation was brought in to undertake a clean of some of the storerooms. Here, for six weeks, the team dealt with cleaning both the superstructures and some of the objects in the Large Objects Store and the Medium Objects Store. Agata has been liaising with contractors in the Museum to do an afterhours high-level clean of the structure. Objects on open display and certain showcases require covering and then checking the following morning.

Large projects

The Tu Do conservation project led by Jeff Fox is making progress. In conjunction with Matt and Teressa (a husband-and-wife duo) from Allpoints Shipwrights, Tu Do is getting some much-needed repair works on the decking, which will make it more water-tight, remove much of the rotted wood and make it more structurally stable. This is the first stage of the project, which will likely end in mid-August. The second phase is scheduled to start the following month. Matt and Teressa are accustomed to working on heritage vessels, welcoming the notions of minimal intervention and retaining as much original wood as possible.

Under the watchful eye of Nick Flood, the Cape Bowling Green lighthouse has undergone its yearly engineer’s inspection, an interior and exterior clean, replacement of the balcony’s waterproofing, and some much-needed maintenance updates like inspection and investigation into the windows and wooden window frame by a heritage expert, and replacement of rotten wood. The vents in the lantern room have slowly been removed by Emma Hayles to treat corrosion and replace waterproofing.

On Wednesday mornings during the recent winter school holidays, visitors to the Museum were treated to a display of the weekly maintenance of the HMAS Kara Kara engine. Fleet volunteers (Peter Baldridge and Eric Deshon) and Nick engaged with wide-eyed families, sharing facts and the history of the engine as it slowly turned over in front of them. Intern Jill got the chance to help on what is becoming a right-of-passage for all our interns – the early start Kara Kara maintenance.

Michael Rampe from Rampe Realistic Imaging was at the Museum recently to capture and reconstruct 3D objects. Michael had previously been on-site to capture the interior and engine room of Tu Do for greater accessibility. This time around he captured images of a number of objects including the Blaeu Globe and the freshly pest-treated ningher canoe. Nick was asked to provide assistance with handling objects, and spent a session with Michael learning about the techniques and capture methods, and ways the team can use these high-resolution 3D images.

Exhibitions

Jeff, Emma and Kevin have been hard at work preparing objects, plinths and crates for the travelling component of Mariw Minaral (Spiritual Patterns). Due to head out in the first week of August (commencing at QVMAG Launceston), the large-scale format of the 2D and 3D works has made the process challenging. POD Museum and Art Services Pty Ltd was brought in to crate up the dugong on its display plinth, with the notion that most of the works could be easily installed and required minimal output from lending institutions.

Mäna and Bäru – The sea Country of Guykuda Munungurr is finally swimming in the Bamal space. Eighteen fish (and one crocodile) were scheduled for hanging display. Preparator Kevin Bray made cradles and brackets for each, and these were then painted to match the colours and patterns of each individual fish. These were then individually hung from the ceiling using fishing wires – a time-consuming process, as each was hung at a specific height and angle to fulfil the curators’ and designers’ vision. The effort was well rewarded as the space is truly lovely.

Alayne Avis has been working on preparing the summer exhibition, and a number of large posters to accompany the Wharfies’ Mural in the Tasman Light Gallery. On 20 July, the Museum hosted a VIP delegation, which included the US Secretary of the Navy, Mr Carlos Del Toro, and Vice Admiral Mark Hammond AO, Australian Chief of Navy. The group toured sections of the Museum and viewed some of our US collection items, including the USS Canberra bell and the beautifully polished replica America’s Cup that Alayne diligently worked on. To safeguard the objects and engage with delegates, Alayne and Myf Bryant from Registration were present during the viewing. Alayne has also been borrowing the expertise of Fleet to remove the sails on Blackmores First Lady (in which Kay Cottee circumnavigated the world non-stop) so that they can be assessed and given a well-deserved clean.

Jeff has helped facilitate two members’ talks – one on the shipwreck of the Dunbar, which occurred near the entrance to Sydney Harbour in 1857, and another on the pearling industry. These talks are aimed at not only informing our members about maritime topics but allowing them to view some of the collection that isn’t on display – whilst conservation treatment isn’t always required prior to these events, Jeff works to condition report and provide adequate supports for these collection items and to ensure their safe presentation.

Events

Agata and Emma gave a talk entitled the Plastics Paradox in conjunction with Seabin on-site, which focused on plastics within the collection, their degradation and care. The 30-minute talk, attended by 20 people, received positive feedback, with many of the general public admitting to never having considered issues of plastic degradation within collections.

Nick, along with AICCM, hosted an event looking at the history and conservation program for Pyrmont Bridge. The event featured speeches by several dignitaries including David Glasson, Pyrmont Bridge Maintenance, Property NSW (and weekend Museum volunteer) who is the sentinel who operates the Pyrmont Bridge. Afterwards the group moved up to the bridge to stand on the swing span while the bridge opened, with a few given the opportunity to inspect the cabin with Graeme Curran (fleet engineer). The event provided a rare insight into the delicate and detailed conservation and research work required to keep the bridge in operational condition. (See separate article in this newsletter.)

Workshops and tours

The team has undergone several training sessions at Yalagan Registered Training, after which we can safely work at heights, and drive around and operate EWPs (elevated work platforms), booms and forklifts, even those over 11 metres. No doubt this will come in handy for some of our bigger projects.

Emma and Nick attended the three-day Bruker XRF mapping workshop at the Art Gallery of NSW. It was fascinating to see the device working in real time, what it can accomplish, and some of the information the Gallery was able to obtain about their paintings. Emma was lucky enough to head up to Newcastle to attend the Australian Museums and Galleries Association (AMaGA) conference at the beginning of May. It was great to see what other institutions have been working on and dealing with, and the conference’s theme this year – ‘discomfort’ – was a poignant topic of discussion. And Emma, Jeff and Alayne visited Sydney Analytical at the University of Sydney on a Friday in July to view the facility’s new equipment. Dr Elizabeth Carter was very accommodating, showing us around and discussing some upcoming projects for her team.

International Conservation Services (ICS) New South Wales

Paintings

An intriguing discovery was made during recent building works at the famous Niagara Café in Scone revealing a mural, believed to have been painted in the late 1950s, hidden beneath overpaint. ICS conservators got to work with careful overpaint removal, a slow-going and meticulous process, to unveil an Americana Country and Western-themed mural extending across the entire 17-metre building wall. Head of Conservation, Fine & Decorative Art Adam Godijn, Senior Paintings Conservator Alis Jitarescu, and conservators Francesca Elia, Maria Vincente and Issy Legg worked on this extensive project, which included cleaning, stabilisation of flaking paint, fills, and retouching.

Textiles

In the Textiles department, Yolanda El Khouri and Elric Ringstad have been on-site in private residences installing a large Uzbek Suzani and a smaller tapestry. Yolanda recently undertook the preparation and mounting of a large Chinese embroidery from the White Rabbit Gallery, and is currently overseeing the printed reproduction of an early document printed on silk from the Sydney Eisteddfod. Yolanda was also heavily involved in the conservation and mounting process of a 1920s lampshade with dangling beads and a beaded jacket for exhibition inHome in St George 1920–1960 at the Hurstville Museum & Gallery. Meanwhile, Bella Taylor has been applying Velcro hanging systems to two heavy rugs from the White Rabbit Gallery, and is currently carrying out a large rehousing project of costumes for the Museums of History New South Wales (MHNSW).

Christina Ritschel has been conserving costumes from the movie Dogs in Space from the collection of the National Film and Sound Archive. She has also been liaising with the Art Centre Melbourne and Costume Mannequin Solutions to have a bespoke mannequin produced for an opera costume worn by Dame Joan Sutherland.

Christina has nearly completed the stabilisation of a shattered silk lining of a red hunting coat from the MHNSW, and is also completing work on the green leather upholstery in the House of Representatives Chamber of Old Parliament House, Canberra.

Objects & Built Heritage

ICS conservators ventured down through the labyrinth of disused tunnels around St James Railway Station to establish the current condition of known documentary evidence of their use in WWII, including posters, painted inscriptions and graffiti. The walls contain an assortment of graffiti, the oldest of which are the pencilled names and serial numbers of soldiers dating from when the tunnels were used as bomb shelters during WWII.

The assessment confirmed the existence of three WWII air raid shelter posters and also revealed substantially more names dating from the 1940s. A photographic record of the walls using ultraviolet and infrared light was undertaken to allow desktop analysis of the graffiti to identify more inscriptions.

The Objects & Built Heritage team has been working on many more projects including treating two marble dogs at the front of Retford Park House for the National Trust of NSW.

Paper

Our paper conservators have been busy. Caroline Whitley and Shima Gholami have worked on a large rehousing project of photographic materials that will eventually be going to State Records NSW.

Katie Wood treated a large Chinese artwork measuring two metres by one metre, which had heavy discolouration and acidic staining. The treatment included washing the parchment via immersion, which was a particular challenge due to the large size and fragility of the paper. The treatment proved to be worthwhile, however, with good results and a reduction in stains.

The update of the paper lab at ICS Sydney continues, with ongoing refurbishment of the working space and improvements to our storage facilities.

Frames and Furniture

The team recently completed a beautiful clean and repair of timbers for the iconostasis at St George Cathedral in Redfern. Frames and Furniture conservator Mark Searle is currently working on an intricate bronze paint removal and surface cleaning of a very fine gilded table base for the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Launceston.

O’Sullivan Conservation (OSC)

Staff news

O’Sullivan Conservation continues to expand its skills and capabilities with the addition of three new staff members. Mathew Geale joins the team as Metals Conservation Specialist, having run his own metals restoration and jewellery-making business for over a decade. Mathew brings his wealth of knowledge and experience in corrosion treatments, metal finishing and patination, and silversmithing to both studio and on-site projects. Kimberley Chung and Georgina Wiley also joined the team as Assistant Object Conservators for a large-scale conservation cleaning project at the Australian National Maritime Museum. Our mid-year celebration brought the whole team together at the end of this project to celebrate our achievements so far this year.

Professional news

It was a great privilege for the team to be invited to attend the National Trust (NSW) Heritage Awards, held at Daltone House in Pyrmont in May. O’Sullivan Conservation is proud to support the conservation and maintenance of Judy Watson’s marble sculpture bara, Monument for the Eora, the winner of this year’s award for Aboriginal Heritage. The Archibald Memorial Fountain, for which OSC undertook quality control for the bronze conservation works, was also highly commended in the category of Conservation of Built Heritage.

Eoin and Hannah thoroughly enjoyed this year’s AMaGA conference in Newcastle in May. Over 500 delegates from around Australia and internationally joined together for conversations around the conference theme of ‘discomfort’, including topics affecting museum collections such as climate change, trauma and healing, and repatriation. We particularly enjoyed the Australian Museum’s discussion ‘NOT the Colonial Museum? Historic practices & their representation in modern natural history museums’, delivered by Dr Mariko Smith, Rehan Scharenguivel¸ Silvia Da Rocha, which is an area that warrants further discussion in the conservation and museums industries.

In July, the Solvent Gels workshop held at AGNSW was attended by Katherine, Camilla and Kimberley. It was wonderful to see the potential of this material for cleaning projects and we were given the chance to test out its capabilities in the AGNSW labs.

Also in July, Hannah attended For Our Elders: A Night of First Nations Self-Determination at the Australian Museum, which celebrated the story of Ngarigo woman Nellie Bungil Walker (Nanny Nellie). The new temporary display in the First Nations Gallery was unveiled by Nanny Nellie’s great-granddaughter Aunty Irene Ridgeway. The display includes a likeness of Nannie Nellie by the 20th-century sculptor Rayner Hoff, and O’Sullivan Conservation is proud to be associated with the broader project in conserving one of a trio of sculptures by the artist.

Treatment projects

O’Sullivan Conservation was welcomed by the staff at the Australian National Maritime Museum in May and June to carry out a six-week preventive conservation cleaning project of the Museum’s large and medium object stores. The project saw us expand our team to include four conservator supervisors, five assistant objects conservators and two conservation technicians. Working at height, the team undertook top-down deep cleaning of the difficult-to-access storage areas, including the fabric of the building, racking, pallets and individual collection items, to remove accumulated dust through dry brush-vacuuming and aqueous cleaning where appropriate. ANMM no doubt now has one of the cleanest object stores in Sydney!

The City of Sydney engaged O’Sullivan Conservation to undertake the conservation treatment of Earth Mother, a rare example of a mid-20^th-century playground sculpture by artist Anita Aarons. Located in the children’s playground at Cook & Phillip Park in Sydney, it is designed for children to crawl through, climb over, and slide across. Though structurally sound, the sculpture was in poor condition visually. The conservation treatment involved the careful removal of two layers of abraded and flaking paint from the surface, followed by removal and repairs to the cracked and unstable mortar at the interface between the two sections of the sculpture, and treatment of the exposed and corroding armature, prior to the application of a new colour-matched protective coating. Conservation treatment has returned this unique heritage-listed play sculpture to its original condition and reinstated the artist’s intent that it be both robust, visually appealing, and tactile for children’s play.

O’Sullivan Conservation has carried out treatment of the sandstone plaque at Mrs Macquarie’s Chair in the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney. This included re-incising and in-painting three decorative details surrounding the lettering, with the help of historical photographs, as well as cleaning and biocide treatment of the sandstone. Emily fully utilised her industrial design and conservation skills, taking the lead on the project and completing not only the scaled-up drawings but also the inpainting and treatment of the plaque.

Conservation treatment of the Stimson Memorial drinking fountain for Fairfield Council is now complete. The cast concrete construction had been relocated from its original location in the 1970s and was found in nearby bushland in 2021. Focusing on preserving the piece in keeping with its age and use, conservation involved low-pressure washing, analysis of the numerous coating layers, removal of the existing coatings, loss compensation, and recoating. The memorial was reinstalled in Fairfield City in the revitalised parklet near the Fairfield rail, and OSC has fabricated and installed a new interpretive plaque.