VIEWPOINT: Kaisu Koivisto: Warm Table

Who cares?

When an art critic looks at Kaisu Koivisto’s hairy artworks he can end up thinking deeply. One analysis crystallises the production of The Young Artist of 1996 thus: "Kaisu Koivisto’s art questions the hierarchy of opposites established by the modern subject." The analysis of Koivisto’s "Warm Table" by the conservator of the Museum of Contemporary Art is noticeably more concrete: "3/7 1997, horsehair, wood, cloth, 85x80x135, RH50%, 20ºC, horsehair comes away easily."

THE CONSERVATOR’S EYE

Although it seems paradoxical to speak of ‘conservation’ and ‘contemporary art’ in the same breath, Kiasma’s two conservators, Siukku Nurminen and Kirsti Harva, have plenty of work. The artworks’ varying materials and structures present a real challenge, even though it is not a question of dealing with old objects. Most of the conservators’ work consists of documenting, but they can be called on to perform more specialised duties; their job description may suddenly include fishing flies out of milk (Wolfgang Laib: Milkstone) or rolling out hundreds of kilos of dough in a small, hot space (Meta Isaeus-Berlin: I’m not at home).

Seen through the conservators’ eyes Kaisu Koivisto’s works Warm Table and Measure are very different from each other. The materials of Warm Table are long-lasting, but the india rubber trousers used in Measure are in danger of perishing within a couple of decades. "In our work with contemporary art the emphasis is mainly on preventive conservation and documenting new acquisitions and exhibition works", says Siukku Nurminen.

A conservator’s training does not offer specialisation in contemporary art as an option. According to Nurminen it would be difficult to come up with a sufficiently comprehensive course, as contemporary art is diverse and constantly on the move. Knowledge becomes hopelessly out-of-date. The basics and familiarity with materials can indeed be learnt through training, but the best contemporary art course is provided by practical work and maintaining close contact with colleagues around the world. One gradually learns to recognise in artworks the properties that will require special care and treatment.

"Not that I always see things as a conservator. When I wander round museums and galleries I look at works in an entirely different way", states Siukku Nurminen. "When a new work is brought into the museum, that’s when my relationship to it changes. It can be that I don’t have time to look at works as pieces of art, they simply change into concrete objects. I get out my camera, tape measure and forms and get down to work."

DOCUMENTATION

An inventory of Warm Table was made in summer 1997. Siukku Nurminen remembers the event well. She shows the files containing the full details on the work. There are photographs and slides of the work on the top.

"First I photographed the work as soon as it arrived, to document its condition and appearance", explains Nurminen. Professional photographers later photographed it in the studio for the archives and press use. The work has also been photographed in its present position in the gallery as part of the Nordic Postmodernism collection exhibition, where it is on display for the first time since its acquisition.

The next job is to measure the work. Nurminen admits that the measurements are unavoidably approximate, since the Table flowing with horsehair may refashion itself to some extent when being moved; nor, because of the organic material used, are the measurements otherwise fixed. The relativity of the measurements is typical of many other works of contemporary art made up of different materials. The dimensions of installations are also often convertible. In unclear cases the rule of thumb is always to ask for exact instructions from the artist.

A SIGNATURE AMONG THE HAIR?

The object description form used when making an inventory dates from the form long used in the Finnish National Gallery, designed for art very different from the Warm Table, namely, traditional paintings and sculptures. As art changed it became clear that using and filling in the old-style forms was becoming increasingly problematical, so that a special form of its own was designed for Kiasma. The new form is more flexible and leaves more room for the descriptive report.

The object description form still requests the marking and dating of the work, that is, for practical purposes, the signature. When doing the inventory Siukku Nurminen searched the work cautiously for a signature amongst the hair, but there was none. Signatures are used mainly in connection with paintings, graphics and other paper-based works; indeed, you even see them now and then on installations, claims Nurminen.

When the identification marks have been clarified, the work’s materials are examined and specified. It isn’t always as easy to specify the materials as it was in the case of Koivisto’s works, when the relevant information was supplied by the artist. All that was left for the conservator to do was to confirm and define in more detail the information given. On the form, the Warm Table was marked down as being constructed of horsehair and the fabric beneath it, and the wood forming the framework of the Table. The inventory for Measure, the other work on show in the collection exhibition, reads: latex (india rubber), horsehair, part-painted steel.

On the form are also noted any other possible instructions and information from the artist regarding technique, alternative suggestions for presentation and hanging, dimensions and lighting alternatives. Observations of damage to the work or special properties it possesses are also marked down carefully. In this section the form on the Warm Table reads: hair comes off easily. The shedding of hairs did indeed turn out to be a problem later.

TROUSERS THAT PERISH

When the inventory has been completed the work is either stored or placed in a museum room on show to the public. When storing work it is important to specify the conditions suitable for each piece. According to Siukku Nurminen the Warm Table fares best in dust-free conditions at 20ºC in air with a relative moisture content of 50%. If necessary the hair can be gently cleaned with a special vacuum cleaner used only in connection with conservation. If the Table is lent to another exhibition, its own special transportation crate will be designed for it.

All the materials used in the Warm Table will last. Siukku Nurminen speaks of centuries, which one cannot always automatically do in the case of contemporary art. Hair, wood and fabric are all materials which, for instance, one can find well-preserved in old graves. On the other hand daylight and air are causing the natural rubber of Measure to disintegrate at an alarming rate, nor is it possible to halt the disintegration process. "We all know how quickly an ordinary rubber band made of this same material perishes in a desk drawer", Nurminen reminds us.

It remains to be seen, whether the museum will decide to replace the trousers with another, identical pair at some point, or will they content themselves with letting the work be lost in a few decades. The conservators constantly discuss with each other questions about replacement. What parts of the work can be replaced, and at what stage does the work cease to be the original work, as intended by the artist? Does this have any significance on the whole? Such questions lead finally to aesthetic discussions on the origin and authenticity of the work, a subject which according to Nurminen at the moment poses the trickiest problems in the conservation of contemporary art.

ON PEDESTAL OR NOT?

When the work becomes part of the exhibition, several new factors have to be taken into consideration. How is the work best seen and at the same time preserved from damage? Does it need special lighting, a pedestal, railing or other measures for keeping the public from coming too near, or even protective glass? Should there be signs up forbidding touching, or can visitors be trusted to understand that the objects are delicate works of art?

"Right from the start we thought about using a pedestal for the Warm Table, but then we decided to place it directly on the floor, like an ordinary Table. And certainly the hair looks more impressive coming straight down onto the floor," says Nurminen.

However, the Table’s hair turned out to be so tempting that it was touched constantly, causing horsehairs to fall out onto the floor. Unwilling to put up a forbidding railing, the conservators decided after all to put the Table on a low pedestal.

"This emphasises the work’s status as a work of art, which hopefully will stop people stroking the hair and will prevent the Table becoming bald and collecting dust," explains Nurminen. "The public can still get near to admire the Table’s gleaming pelage and peer down into the exciting depths replacing the Table top."

LOOKING AT THE HAIR

Of course not everyone looks at the hair through conservator’s glasses. To Kaisu Koivisto works made of horsehair and other "animal materials" such as horns are seen as, for example, comments on the relationship between man and beast and through this their otherness. Marketta Seppälä writes: "In her works nature, woman, corporeality and sexuaklity are openly intertwined with the animalistic."

Besides seeing it as a dependant object, does the conservator also see the Warm Table as a comment on the gender question or the annulment of dichotomies? "As an art object the Warm Table appears to me very safe and as non-aggressive as possible. At the same time there’s something mystical concealed in its shiny black coat. The work can’t ever be completely explained, but I like it," affirms Siukku Nurminen.

Minna Raitmaa

Sources:
Interview with Siukku Nurminen, 30 June 2000.
Castrén, Hannu 1996; "Horsehair covers and reveals". In Kaisu Koivisto, Young artist of the year 1996. 9.3. –14.4. Tampereen Taidemuseo. Tampere
Art Museum
Seppälä, Marketta 1998; "Magical Talisman". In Animal, Anima, Animus. Ed. Marketta Seppälä, Jari-Pekka Vanhala and Linda Weintraub. Pori Art Museum/FRAME.