Caring through decline: palliative and bereavement care for unstable plastics

Conservators’ care for artworks extends throughout a work’s ‘lifetime’ as conservators manage change over time. The article follows from Martha Singer’s work on ‘Palliative care for contemporary art conservation’ to introduce a case study on a speculative prototype, Cyberdesk (1993), made in a polyurethane elastomer by the American industrial designer, Lisa Krohn. At present, 30 years after its conception, the work’s aging trajectory poses significant questions about recognition, interpretation, and decline. Conducting a ‘care conversation’ with the artist demonstrated the need to recognise emotional reactions to negative change and to better understand theories of grief. In proposing ways for conservators to care through decline by translating practices from medical care to art conservation, this article engages with care literature and responds to a need for further development of social care practices in art conservation.