Preparing the ‘Moss wall’

The MCA prepatory team and volunteers have almost finished installing ‘Moss wall’ (1994)

As viewers of art or visitors to an exhibition, we remain blissfully unaware of the many hours that go into transporting, preparing and positioning each piece. Nadia Maljkovic is an MCA Educator and Preparator. She has recently been overseeing the installation of ‘Moss wall’ (1994) as part of Take your time: Olafur Eliasson and shares some of her behind the scenes experience here.

Tell us about this moss, where is it from and how did it get here?

Well the moss has been treated in Norway, in Europe. I believe that it’s called Reindeer Moss and what you see is its natural colour, it’s not tinted. The thing to know about our moss is that it’s technically dead, which is different to any of the other exhibitions. To touch, the moss is very, very soft. We have to wear gloves when we are handling it because it’s sort of sticky and there’s also a smell to it.

What does it smell like?

It reminds me of winter in Europe. A lot of people have quite a strong reaction to it. I was told that in California people were complaining about the scent, but with us – nothing! There are three permanent staff working on ‘Moss wall’ and an amazing group of volunteers – and no one has ever mentioned anything.

How do you describe your role as a Preparator?

It changes depending on the exhibition. With ‘Moss wall’ my job involves briefing the volunteers when they come in, making sure that they are happy and then supervising the project. This one is great because everyone wants to work on moss!  As part of my role this time I am also constantly calculating to make sure that we have enough moss left and that the installation is consistent. I also have to make sure that no moss leaves the area.

Why is that? Is it to do with customs?

Yes, definitely. Customs have come in a couple of times to check the work. Not one bit of moss is allowed to leave the gallery space. So all of the boxes – even the pallets I think – are going to get destroyed and burned. Everything has to get collected, so while we are working the area is sealed off and under quarantine.

Can you explain the actual process of installing the moss?

The first thing that we did was cover the wall with large screws set approximately 20cm apart. Chicken wire was then placed over the screws leaving a gap between the wall and the screw head. That’s the area that we could actually stuff the moss in. We were given instructions to start from the top, and make our way down. Our process was to pack the holes of the wire really tightly with moss, it’s purely held in the space by its density. The scary thing was that every other museum – when installing this work – has run out of moss.  But Tony [the installation coordinator] was aware of this and had done his calculations over and over again. We were just, just, just on the line.

The MCA team install the ‘Moss wall’ (1994) by pushing dense patches of the moss through chicken wire.

What have been other challenges of this particular installation?

Well, the wall is roughly 64 square meters. That means approximately 288 boxes, eight pallets of moss – and there are two layers when you open up the box. Once you open the box you have to clean the moss carefully – each piece. But my main fear was about the moss falling off the wall. I was afraid that if it dried too much it would fall off. The exhibition runs for four months but hopefully it will stay as it is. I also heard that the drier the moss gets the wider it gets. I hope that’s true!

I love that there’s this sense of anticipation with this piece, you don’t actually know what it is going to look like day to day…

Exactly! Number one is that this type of moss hasn’t been used before. It comes from Norway and it was treated in Norway, but in Australia we weren’t sure how it was going to react so we didn’t treat it. You just don’t know how the material will react to temperature or handling.

The visual texture of the piece is incredible.

Yes, also the gradient when the natural light comes through is amazing. Even though this piece is technically dead, the colour is still beautiful. Unlike the other museum moss wall installations we do not have to spray our moss with mist every day, but we will be keeping a close eye on it.

What was your experience of ‘Moss wall’ (1994)? Comment below, we’d love to hear from you.