Hello again from the Martin Conservation Laboratory at the Denver Art Museum! I’m back to share Esu’s most recent conservation journey before going up on display in the newly reinstalled arts of Africa gallery. If you missed my first blog post introducing Esu, check it out.
In addition to making sure I understood the context of Esu and who they are before beginning treatment, I conducted a thorough condition assessment. Condition assessments are a critical part of any conservation treatment. They provide the foundation for a treatment plan. It is important to be as detailed and thorough as possible to best understand the object’s condition. What we see during the initial condition assessment may not be the whole story. Sometimes more information about condition becomes apparent only after starting treatment. However, being as prepared as possible makes responding to unknowns easier if they do come up. Conservators take a number of photographs throughout the treatment as part of the documentation process.
In the before treatment photos (Figures 1&2 in the slide show below), you can see one of his strands is already detached (on the left side).
A more in-depth analysis is sometimes undertaken as part of the condition assessment to better understand both the condition itself and materials used in making an object. I used microscopy to get a closer look at the hide, and through matching the follicle patterns on the hide determined that some of the hide is likely from goat skin. Because Esu is made of organic materials, I wanted to screen for any possible previous use of hazardous materials on his surface. To do this, I used a portable X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) machine and found that he had not been previously treated. To learn more about why pesticides used to be used on objects, check out this handy page from the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian.
I spent a good week and a half doing my condition assessment of Esu, and the biggest issue was the state of the hide straps underneath the cowrie shells. Over time, leather naturally gets brittle and weak through a process called denaturation, and that is what happened here. The hide had torn in a number of places—some of which had been addressed by previous conservation treatments and some of which were new. The weight of the cowrie shells is a source of continued stress on the weakening hide. The old repairs were beginning to fail. Some had already failed completely, and my first task was to remove the old repair material.
Removing the old repair material required unthreading the cowrie shells from the hide strand to access what I needed to. Photography and documentation were a very important part of this step as I needed to keep track of what shells went with which strand and in what order.
Figure 1: Esu Figure Before Treatment. Yoruba artist, Eshu Elegba Figure, 1900s. Wood, leather, and cowrie shells; 31 in. x 24 in. x 7 in. Denver Art Museum: Gift of Maureen and Dan Nidess, 1985.296
Figure 2: Esu Figure Before Treatment - Proper Right. Yoruba artist, Eshu Elegba Figure, 1900s. Wood, leather, and cowrie shells; 31 in. x 24 in. x 7 in. Denver Art Museum: Gift of Maureen and Dan Nidess, 1985.296
Figure 3: Detail of Microscopy View
Figure 4: Me Using the portable XRF. Photo by Anna Piwowar.
Figure 5: Condition Assessment Detail of Failed Previous Repair
Figure 6: During Treatment Detail of Failed Previous Repair
Figure 7: Detail of Unthreaded Shells & Previous Breaks
Figure 8: Testing to Find Appropriate Backing Material & Adhesive Combination
Figure 9: During Treatment Detail of Lining Process with Painted Tyvek®
Figure 10: During Treatment Detail of Strand Before Rethreading
Figure 11: Image of Me Reinforcing a Hide Strand. Photo by Anna Piwowar
Figure 12: Mount Maker Spencer Alred Fitting the Mount
Figure 13: Me & Spencer Installing Esu in the Gallery. Photo by Anaka Asokan.
Figure 14: Me Repainting Some of the Repairs After Esu had Been Installed. Photo by Anaka Asokan.
Figure 15: Image of Esu Installed in the Gallery
Figure 16: Esu Figure After Treatment - Front View. Yoruba artist, Eshu Elegba Figure, 1900s. Wood, leather, and cowrie shells; 31 in. x 24 in. x 7 in. Denver Art Museum: Gift of Maureen and Dan Nidess, 1985.296
Figure 17: Esu Figure After Treatment - Proper Right View. Yoruba artist, Eshu Elegba Figure, 1900s. Wood, leather, and cowrie shells; 31 in. x 24 in. x 7 in. Denver Art Museum: Gift of Maureen and Dan Nidess, 1985.296
Once all the old repairs were removed, I had to consider what I was going to use to make my repairs. I did a variety of tests and reached out to other conservators before deciding to use a split piece of soft Tyvek® that I painted to match the hide and adhered to the hide using a suitable conservation-approved adhesive. The Tyvek® was adhered to both sides of the break. I decided on the Tyvek® because it is a soft and flexible, yet strong material that would give support along the breaks and take the shape of the aged hide. I was also able to make it thin enough to rethread with the cowrie shells by shaving down the fuzzy interior surface as thin as I could without compromising the overall structure.
During the process of removing old repair material and putting on the new ones, the hide continued to break locally, and another strand became entirely detached. This is always a sad thing, but not uncommon. I thanked Esu for showing me more problem areas while I was working with him in the lab and not after he was on display in the gallery. With two strands having completed detached, I reinforced the attachment points on the hide strands. To do this, I lined the interior of the loops with Tyvek® and wrapped the same piece around the exterior.
After all the Tyvek® was in place along the breaks, I had to restring the cowrie shells on the hide. This took some time and redoing to make sure I had the correct orientation of the shells, as some of the hide straps were stiffened and curved partway through, changing the direction the shells would face.
After time with me on the conservation bench, Esu spent time with one of the DAM’s talented mountmakers, Spencer Alred. Many objects you see around the museum have custom-made mounts supporting them in place. In addition to working with curators, conservators also work closely with mountmakers to determine the best way to secure objects in the galleries without causing any harm. Spencer devised a way to hold Esu, tilted slightly forward at the curator’s request. Once fabricated, the mount was painted, padded, and ready for installation.
I started the treatment in December of 2022 and finished in May 2023. True to their trickster nature, I saw areas where my treatment needed attention again and repainted some repairs after Esu was placed in his mount. It was a bittersweet day when I left the gallery after Spencer and I installed him. I miss Esu’s presence in the lab, but now he can be admired by everyone who visits the arts of Africa gallery. I make a point to visit him during the week, and hope you do too when you come to the DAM!
