Supplement - strategy- protection

At the old summer palace, which was once a private recreation area of the imperial family in Beijing, we encountered an instance of preservation that seemed only appropriate at a popular tourist destination in China, with an everlasting, overwhelming amount of visitors. Due to a frantic desire to protect historical sculpture while stressing the authenticity of it and opening it up to the public, a compromise was struck: the result was an encasement of a bronze crane in an intimate wire mesh cage in the shape of the sculpture, fenced off from direct access. From afar, one could hardly figure out if the cage was part of the sculpture as it became a mutated, caged crane that stood out from the cluster of similar sculptures. This is an example of how the old is being protected by a new membrane/supplement, which tries not to suppress or overwhelm the old, perhaps not with much success. Clearly, this protective shield also became a device to lure the attention of passing tourists by stressing the value of it--by look but no touching, without sacrificing the original form of the sculpture enclosed within. It's no surprise that it was the one of the most crowded sites for photos in the garden, so one could conclude that highly protected objects or sites draw in spectacle, and spectacle draws in more spectacle. It seems that the sculpture preserves itself by asserting its physical dominance over others, or by increasing the lifetime of the sculpture. Layers of protection- the pestal, steel fence, and wire mesh cage give the sculpture a sense of significance and authority, and creates boundary and distance between the viewer and the displayed object, turning it into an isolated, permanent object that is untouchable and distant. In contrast to the old summer palace (yuan ming yuan), visual aspects ranging from sculptures to natural landscapes are protected and choreographed more carefully to accommodate the large flow of tourists.