WOOD STORY
And they all lived happily ever after (except the insects)
In 2005, I created a full-scale outdoor reading room sculpture, called "Stacks," in which benches, shelves and books evolved from tree roots and a serpentine trunk (Fig. 1). It was commissioned by Cazenovia College, in Cazenovia, NY, for their new Sculpture Court.
Since then, I have continued sculpting "books" of wood in various forms, often incorporating artistic tracks carved by insects in the wood.
In February of 2010, a recently created piece ("Between the Lines") (Figs. 2 and 3) was accepted for a group exhibition on the theme of books ("Fit To Be Bound"), in Syracuse´s Everson Museum of Art. After delivering the work to the museum, I received frantic calls to take it back: fine sawdust and a couple of insect borers were seen emerging from the wood, specifically from a four-inch thick piece of cherry wood and its attached bark (Figs. 4 and 5). They sealed the sculpture in a bag until I could retrieve it.
With advice from museum staff, Karen Convertino and Debora Ryan; an art conservator, Susan Blakely of Westlake Conservators; a retired forestry products professor, Paul Manion; and online research; I determined that fogging and other chemical treatments could harm the art and would still not necessarily eliminate the insects. Freezing was ruled out as impractical and possibly damaging to the glue. Oxygen scavenging (reduction to approximately 0.1% oxygen) would be the safest and most effective method of destroying the insects.
With further research, I located Impak Corp. of Los Angeles, which supplies packaging and oxygen-absorbing materials, primarily for food processing. Jessica Morales of Impak advised on the materials required. I subsequently ordered a 26.0" x 36.0" clear PAKVAK5.0 bag, packets of Oxygen Absorber Packet (an iron-based compound) capable of removing 20,000cc of oxygen, and several oxygen-indicator tablets, and received them on March 25 (Fig. 6).
The art conservators were not able to locate a hoped-for commercial heat sealer for the bag, but I was able to satisfactorily seal the sculpture and OxyFree packets in the bag with a household iron on March 26, following explicit but simple instructions (Figs. 7.)
Over approximately the next two days, the indicator tablets turned an appropriate pink color, signalling very low oxygen levels (Figs. 8 and 9).
Over the next 23 days, I maintained the temperature at approximately 70-75 degrees F. and 20-25% humidity. On April 18, I opened the bag (Fig. 10), removing the sculpture (Fig. 11) and re-enclosing it in a clear trash bag for observation of any possible insect emergence (Fig. 12). After more than a week, none had appeared.
At the same time, more assistance came from Kim Adams, an entomologist and extension specialist at SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, in Syracuse, who identified two separate insects which emerged from the sculpture. One was an Antlered Powderpost Beetle or Death-watch Beetle (Ptilinus ruficornis) (Fig. 13). The larger was a Tanbark Borer or Longhorn Beetle (Phymapodes testaceus) (Fig. 14).
