Miyake inflatable dress

Chandra Obie <chandraobie [at] hotmail__com> writes

>I am looking for suggestions or insight from conservators who have
>worked with items similar to an inflatable dress by Issey Miyake
>that will be coming into the collection of the Cincinnati Art
>Museum.  The dress has inflatable sections that blow up like beach
>balls at each shoulder ("pneumatic dress", 2000).  The 'beach balls'
>don't hold air like they used to due to a slow leak(s).  The dress
>was previously returned to the designer to address the problem and
>it appears the Miyake workshop added more glue to seal around the
>inflation nipple, but the issue remains. The donor (who still wears
>the dress) and the museum would like to keep the shoulders
>permanently inflated-looking, as the artist intended, without
>endangering the dress.  How have others treated Miyake's inflatable
>pieces?

We have not treated any Miyake dresses, but we do have several
inflatable pool toys in our collections which we have placed on
exhibit.  Some of these are surprisingly old (1940's) and in
remarkably good shape, but typically there are a few small leaks
that prevent them from holding air for extended periods.  We also
had a rubber/latex squeaky doll of Donald Duck that was on exhibit
for a period of time and could not hold its shape due to several
large holes.  In both cases we found that polystyrene balls,
otherwise known as "beanbag chair filling" worked well to support
these artifacts from the inside.  They are light enough that their
weight typically does not affect the appearance of the inflatable
significantly. For excessively thin inflatables though you could get
a slightly "bumpy" texture on the surface of the inflatable,
depending on the diameter of spheres you use.  Horie's book only
briefly touches on polystyrene, mentioning that it is typically too
brittle to use as a consolidant, and that it does yellow from light
exposure and oxidation, but that would not be a concern here, and he
mentions nothing about inherent instability.

If you find a supplier, they will usually ask you what grade you
want, with the choice being "recycled" or "virgin".  The recycled
stuff is just solid polystyrene planks that have been run through a
shredder, so their shapes and sizes are quite irregular.  Virgin
polystyrene beads are more uniformly-sized and typically spherical.
For our purposes the cost difference is minimal, and I would assume
the virgin beads are preferable, and ideally in the smallest
diameter as possible.

Getting them into the inflatable obviously can be a challenge, and
in both cases I was aided by either a large diameter inflation
nipple, or a relatively large hole in the inflatable that I could
use.  Filling them up can be quite time-consuming and messy, and
static charges can make the little balls fly everywhere if you are
not careful.  The flip side of this is you need to decide if you
want to remove them after exhibit or leave them inside.  Typically I
think polystyrene is considered pretty stable, but there could be
some concern with the polystyrene reacting with another type of
plastic that was used in the inflatable, and that can be harder to
predict.  Natural rubber or highly-plasticized plastics including
PVC may be used in these inflatables, and those would be of most
concern, particularly on a long-term basis, and might necessitate
removal of the beads after exhibit, which would again be quite
time-consuming.  I have seen highly plasticized plastics (fishing
lures) "melt" into clear, solid polystyrene boxes in fishing tackle
boxes within a few years, so that is my main concern, but issues
like that can be difficult to predict between different types of
plastics.   I could also see a case being made to leave the beads
in-situ, with the reasoning that if the inflatable stiffens or
deteriorates over time, at least the beads hold it in the proper
shape.

Tom Braun
Objects Conservator
Daniels Objects Conservation Laboratory
Minnesota Historical Society
345 Kellogg boulevard West
St. Paul, MN 55102-1906
USA
651-259-3382
Fax: 651-296-9961


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 26:15
                 Distributed: Sunday, September 2, 2012
                       Message Id: cdl-26-15-001
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