Description

Over the course of the past 150 years, the development and use of artificial plastics has burgeoned. Plastics are now ubiquitous and unavoidable, from the plastic bag and other items with functional uses - such as household, office, electrical appliances and clothing - to works of art including sculpture, tapestries etc. The myriad of different plastic-based materials and the ways in which they have been treated before, during and after manufacture can leave the conservator, artist and collections manager bewildered as to their identification and hence appropriate treatment and prognosis for any particular object. This volume of papers from a conference held at the Victoria and Albert Museum is intended as a 'marker in the sand', a record of current perceptions and considerations of plastics within museum collections - their importance and problems (inter alia of insurance, pollution, display, decay and conservation).