To showcase the work behind the scenes of the Gallery’s major Collection Online project, a selection of eclectic small works grew into an opportunity to display some of the conservation team’s favourite finds as well as highlighting more obscure pieces found deep in Collection Storage. Over the course of three years, conservators charged with preparing works for photography had seen it all — from Degas to Doulton, to the veritable underdogs of the decorative arts cabinets. From these came the exhibition ‘Small Figures’.
The smallest figure in ‘Small Figures’ is a tiny blue ceramic bird, no bigger than a fingertip. By contrast, the largest is a sculpture of a rhinoceros head by Australian artist Joel Elenberg (illustrated), cast in bronze and balanced on a tall pedestal — an imposing figure, towering over the porcelain animals in the cabinets below.
Joel Elenberg ‘Rhinoceros head’ c.1977
Sandra Taylor ‘Sculpture: Bella casa’ 1978-79
Briefed with collating a list of weird and whimsical works, members of the conservation team jumped at the opportunity to curate a display. A long list of works grew easily: All the funny animals! All the pink things! All the figurines with fancy pants! All the silly goats! Drawing on Stephen Killick’s Small figure making and recording history 1991 (illustrated) for the title, and embracing Killick’s sense of humour, the list of artworks was soon filled with sculptures that brought a smile to the faces of our project team, and those that had been both challenging and rewarding to work on. With expert advice from the Gallery’s exhibition design team, the object list was eventually refined, and the Pelican Lounge display’s peachy-pink colour scheme locked in. Well out of their comfort zone as curators, it was never the conservators’ intention for the display to be taken too seriously. Labels and captions in the display have allowed us to share behind-the-scenes conservation information and anecdotes about the process, instead of the traditional details of the individual works.
Stephen Killick ‘Small figure making and recording History’ 1991
While many of the Collection works needed no more than a simple condition check and clean to prepare them for photography, others required quite significant conservation. A sculpture by Joel Elenberg (1948–80), Rhinoceros head c.1977 was polished to restore the bronze to its original mirrored metallic surface, but more significantly, it was reunited with its ‘stack’ pedestal.
When initially brought out for photography, only the head was present. Searches through archives held in the Gallery’s Research Library revealed the artist’s intent for the bronze to sit on top of a piece of black glass, a wooden block and a black steel pedestal — the stack feature common to several of Elenberg’s sculptures from this time. In storage over the past four decades, the bronze had been inadvertently separated from its base pieces, and an old memo found on file confirmed the glass had been accidentally broken. An interview with gallerist Anna Schwartz, who was married to Elenberg when the work was constructed, helped to inform our decision to use a comparable sheet of reflective black acrylic in place of the glass, and to retain the original wooden block, cracks and all. Its inclusion in ‘Small Figures’ is the first time Rhinoceros head has been seen in its entirety since 1977.
Gallerist Anna Schwartz on her visit to QAGOMA Conservation
Also making their QAGOMA debut because of the Collection Online project are many miniatures, including the tiny birds, of local decorative arts legend LJ Harvey (1871–1949). Selected for their whimsy and intricate detail, small-scale ceramic creatures — beetles, dragons, frogs, fish and stray dogs — were always a welcome find for conservators when processing figurines for digitisation. Many of the ceramics required small aesthetic repairs to chipped glaze before they were ready for photography and display. High-resolution ‘focus stacked’ photography makes these details visible to all Gallery visitors now through the ArtSEEker app and touchscreen interactive, which invites viewers to ‘zoom in’ on details that were once ‘invisible’ to the naked eye. Highlighting exactly where repairs have been made is not commonplace in an exhibition setting; however, this slightly unconventional display gives visitors a glimpse of the work that conservators do, and insights into mounts, storage and even pest management.
LJ Harvey ‘Bird on a branch’ c.1920s
Conservators are in the privileged position of spending significant hours with each work of art, getting to know them more intimately than most: it can take a long time to clean the surface of a grimy pair of pink pantaloons! Regardless of size or value, the works that challenge or bring a smile create the most engagement, but it is always hard to pick a favourite. The Collection Online team gratefully acknowledges the opportunity to curate this display and share our work processes with the greater Gallery community. We hope our favourites make you smile, too.
‘Pair of figurines’ c.1870–80
Rhiannon Walker surface cleaning a figurine
Rhiannon Walker is Associate Conservator, Sculpture, QAGOMA
‘Small Figures’ / Queensland Art Gallery Pelican Lounge and Gallery 17 / 20 September 2023 – 3 August 2025
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