Great Wall of China

Problem solving requested.

A visting Chinese avant-garde artist, Bing Xu Bing is working here at
the University of Wisconsin-Madison in preparation for a show in the
Elvehjem Museum of Art. Bing took rubbings of nearly 1 1/2 kilometers of
the Great Wall of China, and wants to install a large section of this in
the museum. One section is in the process of being backed with kozo and
then will be backed with silk. This process is obviously the strongest,
but Bing is unhappy with the loss of the texture of the walls, etc.
which communicates the process of its making. He is interested in the
possibility of encapsulating the other section (made up of a thousand
pieces,one square meter each, of very raggedy, torn-up, heavily-textured
cheap chinese paper) and does not seem too concerned about the cost or
the time. I am worried that the pieces, once put together on the gallery
wall, will only appear "plastic-y" and reflect too much light. SO- I'm
wondering if there's a third possibility. Something that would
strengthen and unify the pieces, without suffering too much loss of the
texture. (Some flattening is desired). Is there a way of backing without
flattening? Your suggestions, knowledge etc. will be greatly
appreciated.

-Barbara Tetenbaum for Bing Xu Bing
joebeets [at] wiscmacc__bitnet

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                  Conservation DistList Instance 5:11
                   Distributed: Friday, July 19, 1991
                        Message Id: cdl-5-11-002
                                  ***