The science behind preserving the past
Some objects have been stored in people’s houses or garages and sheds, so they’re dusty, and sometimes mouldy.
Under harsh fluorescent light in Auckland Museum’s basement, Ian Langston cleans mould off a ‘‘beautiful’’ black Gibson Les Paul guitar. As a conservator he’s charged with looking after pieces in the museum’s collections, making sure their condition doesn’t deteriorate. Most of the museum’s artefacts don’t need mould wiped off them, though. The Les Paul is one of many contributions Volume that has thrown Langston quite a unique challenge. Unlike the items for other exhibitions, which are either owned by Auckland Museum or loaned by other institutions, these ones come from private lenders – the musicians and artists. And they haven’t always been that well looked after. ‘‘Some objects have been stored in people’s houses or garages and sheds, so they’re dusty, and sometimes mouldy,’’ Langston says. Museum staff wear white gloves when they collect the pieces from the homes of the donors – although those from outside Auckland are usually couriered up. When they arrive, they’re dropped off in a kind of quarantine zone where Langston can inspect their condition. He takes photographs and makes notes; it’s important the owner knows the museum hasn’t damaged their possessions. Langton’s main concern, however, is to look at whether these donations might carry pests that could harm pieces in the museum collections.
His main enemies are dermestid beetle larvae, which most of us know as borer. The museum has taken great pains to eradicate them from its own collections, and Langston has to make sure the contributions coming in for Volume aren’t carrying beetles or larvae that could infest something else.
If there’s even a chance a donation could be carrying unwanted passengers, it needs to be decontaminated.
The typical method is to use a giant freezer housed in the museum basement for a couple of weeks. The freezer runs at -30 degrees Celsius, cold enough to ensure no bugs survive.
Many of the items that come in for Volume can’t be frozen without causing damage, however. Guitars, amplifiers, other instruments and even some posters need to be decontaminated using another, less intrusive method.
Langston creates an airtight bubble around them and pumps in nitrogen gas, leaving it for three weeks to kill off the bugs. This can be done to any object.
Once all the bugs have been frozen or gassed, the display items are allowed into the processing room, where they’re stacked up on shelves lining the walls. There, their condition can be assessed more thoroughly by conservators, and viewed by the people who think about how to best exhibit them.
The mouldy Les Paul was one of the more challenging objects Langston has dealt with for the exhibition. He calls it the ‘‘problem child’’.