Detail, Flag, Peter Louis Jensen, 1969, damaged, brittle, and cracked PVC before conservation. Photo: Statens Museum for Kunst.
hibition space in Copenhagen. Flag was a part of a political manifest and was closely tied, as was the artist, to the ‘experimental school’ (eks-skolen, ed.). Statens Museum for Kunst acquired two of the Flag works, both made of plasticized PVC and from 1969. In one of the works (both entitled Flag), the clear PVC is sewn together to form a pouch and a piece of burlap, the size of the bag, is placed inside the PVC pouch. Flag has horizontal and vertical pouches sewn into the plastic, which contain sand. The condition of the work upon acquisition in 2001 was far from good. The plastic was brittle and cracked, causing most of the sand to escape. The handsewn edges had, in many places, become undone. The plastic was analysed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) which confirmed that it was indeed PVC with a phthalate plasticizer. The brittleness, and slight yellowing, is due to the plasticizer migrating out of the plastic and oxidation. Flag has been restored during the course of the PRIMI project. To restore this work it was necessary to patch the plastic, re-sew
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some of the seams, replace the missing sand and create a new hanging system that supported the weight of the work, which is now on display.
Breathing Plastic The artist Søren Dahlgaard (b. 1973, Denmark) participated in the PRIMI project with his works Breathing Room and Hedge. Breathing room is flexible PVC film extended over adjacent wooden frames to form a large semi-closed space. A compressor behind the wall blows air into the plastic, making it distend and converse, as If it was breathing. The artist says this about his work: ‘When I develop a new art project, the big picture comes first. After that, in the research phase, I have to find the best way to execute the work, which includes identifying the material (s) which have the best qualities in relation to the works construction, aesthetics, sound, colour, texture, longevity, flexibility, price, weight, etc. In many of my sculptures, paintings and installations, I have used PVC or other types of plastic because of their mate-
Flag after conservation, 2012. Photo: Statens Museum for Kunst.
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