Mission: Mural Rescue - Upright at Last

For the first time in two-and-a-half years, the Norman Yates mural, currently undergoing an extensive restoration in the Edmonton Arts Council conservation lab, is upright.

In February 2017, the EAC conservation team spent a week at the Stanley A. Milner Library cutting the 160 square-foot artwork from the wall it had adorned for nearly 50 years. Since then, the team has spent months meticulously grinding about three inches of architectural plaster from the back of each panel, then stabilizing each and addressing losses to the edges.

“We are exactly where we wanted to be on the timeline,” says Public Art Conservator Andrea Bowes. ​“The dry fit stage is complete. That’s when we tested the system we developed for attaching the mural to the wall, saw how well the panels fit together from end to end, and figured out what we need in terms of resources – that’s equipment, people, and time – and how much work we’ll have to do [once we start installing at the renovated library].”

The latest project milestone is the successful development and testing of the attachment system. It was developed in-house, says Bowes, and should hold the mural in place for at least another 50 years. ​“We are working with a mechanical and an adhesive system. We have cleats on the back of each panel, which will slot into recipient cleats on the wall. This hanging system will be reinforced with mortar – the cleats will hold everything in place while it dries. It’s very secure – we estimated that we needed to support 10 pounds per square foot, but the actual weight is much less than that, so our system is more than adequate.”

Although upright, the artwork itself is not yet visible as the tissue paper and fish glue facing applied by the team in 2017 is still in place and will remain so until the seams between each panel are assessed and filled. ​“The paper protects the paint layer so when we fill the areas between the panels, we can take off the excess and not worry about scratches.” After that, the work becomes even more painstaking and laborious. ​“The filled areas between the panels will be in-painted, integrating them with the intact mural. We have the artist’s original shopping list, so we know what his colour palette was. This is very useful as a starting point to understanding his work. It will be about finesse, patience and the ability to read colours. Luckily Jenika [Sobolewska, Conservation Assistant] is a master at this work.”

Although the work won’t be completed for another six months at least, Bowes feels satisfied as she surveys the work so far. ​“When we started this in 2017, we weren’t sure what would happen. There was a chance the mural would not be recoverable. [I] had to do a lot of problem solving as the work went along. I’m pretty excited now by all the work over the past two-and-a-half years, that everything we’ve planned will work for us!”

This is the fourth article in a series:

• Click here for the first article from February 2017
• Click here for the second chapter from April 2018
• Click here for the third chapter from February 2019