GH: Can you tell me about your material choices for your sculpture implement #11?

FB: I've always done a lot of work in steel, combining steel with stone... or steel and wood... or wood and stone. I like all three materials and I work them in a basic way: I carve the wood, fabricate and blacksmith the metal and carve the stone pretty much in the old fashioned way.

GH: Implement #11 is stone and painted steel. Is that core-ten steel?

FB: No. It's mild steel. My feeling on painted steel sculpture, going way back to when I was at the Art Institute (of Chicago) actually... It always looks really great when it's new, and it will be maintained for a few years, and then it starts looking drab and then it just goes downhill from there. So, the idea that I was working with, at the time of doing those implement pieces, was to make something that looked like it had some kind of function but it was not identifiable [as a part of a train, or particular machine]

GH: Simply suggesting functionality, such as having handles?

FB: Right.  Mechanical looking. I did a whole series of those sculptures, maybe 20-30. Some not so big as that [#11]. I always tried to make them real ambiguous, in a sense that, if you combine steel and stone, you've got a modern material with a very ancient material. So they are contradictory, it made [the sculpture] more of a question as to what it was. That was in the back of my mind, to create a question in the viewer's mind, rather than an answer. Using that idea of the question, the mystery, to draw the viewer into the piece more.

I was making "new" "ancient" objects. There was a whole series before this piece that were smaller, which I titled "Artifacts". I just put a number on them, like "Artifact #22", like it would be labeled in a museum, as something that was found and nobody knew exactly what it was.

That was kind of the idea, to keep it anonymous as to what it was, to create more mystery.

GH: Steel, painted surfaces, and stone, age quite differently outdoors. Was this something you considered when making the piece, perhaps even anticipated?

What I would do with the pieces, I would make them, and then I would "age" them. Either by rusting, or by painting them then sandblasting the paint, as though it had worn off and then rusting it, then letting it have its natural life, patina. It's not something a conservator can deal with that much, because I feel that these sculptures have a life of their own, and, as they slowly turn to dust over hundreds or thousands of years, that's part of it.

GH: Interesting. There's probably a history of sculptors doing this sort of thing?

FB: Sure. Earth sculpture is that way. They create it, and then let nature take its course.

GH: As a sculpture conservator/restorer, I am often faced with scenarios where an option of re-painting a sculpture is considered. Would this make sense regarding your outdoor sculptures, like implement #11?

FB: [Weathering] is a normal part of the nature of the material. I am working with it rather than trying to combat it. You can slow [weathering] down by putting some kind of sealers on [the paint]. Experience shows that putting sealers on rust is a temporary deal. That would be at the request of an owner, not something that I would go around doing.

I recognized, early on in my career, that over time, the sculpture was going to change, so rather than fight that, I work with it and make it part of the whole aesthetic.

GH: So, repainting the sculpture would be inconsistent with your intent?

FB: Right.

The city of Philadelphia has been working for many, many years to clean and restore its famous City Hall, and I am proud to say that I was able to do my part to help.

Eight bronze sculptures of monumental scale (figures stand 25 foot tal), wracked with corroded steel fasteners and mottled surfaces of bright green and black were the subject of this overhaul restoration.

Over the course of 2005 through 2006, I held the thrilling position of managing the project team of conservators, 400 feet above the city!

I hope you enjoy my video documentation and the City Hall in center city, Philadelphia.

by Gabriel Harrison

We have several videos of past work on our YouTube channel

If only to restore confidence in marble as an appropriate material to recreate this destroyed sculpture, we should make some sense of why the original failed. We can look at photographic evidence, and with what we know about decay in marble, formulate a likely scenario.
Outdoor marble sculptures, when not periodically cleaned, develop black stains over time. These “stains” happen on the forms, where rain water does not wash away atmospheric soiling, and eventually black crusts form. The illustration on the left shows the sections which are deeply decayed (orange), while others are much less so (blue).
 The deeply decayed sections correspond with the locations where the aforementioned crusts would have formed. If these crusts had been removed with an acid, such as muriatic (hydrochloric) acid, this would explain the localized and excessive decay. It is not uncommon for this type of acid to be used in masonry. Hydrochloric acid as a solution destroys the binders of the marble, and, when dry, soluble salts become deposited within the stone, causing continual excessive decay with each re-wetting of the stone. This would explain the loss of the rifle element to decay, as well as the weakening of the proper right leg. The leg section decayed, it eventually submitted to the weight of the torso, resulting in the fallen statue.

Marble is a very durable and beautiful sculpture medium, and can retain its beauty outdoors, with a simple maintenance routine: yearly washing with water, and if needed, a non-ionic detergent. With this annual washing, stains and crusts will not be able to form, thus the idea to use improper cleaning techniques, such as aggressive acids or potentially damaging agents should never arise again.

The areas highlighted in orange are deeply decayed; the sections in blue have their surfaces intact, as they would be after 140 years of exposure. These localized patterns of decay do not suggest natural weathering.