Artist Engineering Hardware

Handling is cited as one of the leading causes of damage or destruction to works of art. Risks include destruction of paint or other material surface, surface contamination, and injury to the canvas or artwork substrate. Even following best practices, the unavoidable requirement to grip an art object during handling can easily cause irreparable damage. Collaborating with art technicians, conservators and artists in Australia, the United States, the UK and Europe, Artist Engineering partnered with Cobalt Design to design a revolutionary, entirely non-contact hardware system: from shipping through to installation, artworks are securely packed, shipped, staged, installed - and completely untouched.

A modular eco-system was conceptualised and developed around three core components: -Ultra-low profile AE Brackets are permanently fastened to the rear of the artwork (frame/stretcher) -Removable AE Clips secure into AE Brackets, providing non-contact attachment to shipping crates -AE Grips mount to AE Clips, providing non-contact fixtures for all handling scenarios Components were meticulously refined against artwork sizing, shipping and installation constraints, and materials were specified for performance and archival stability. One-by-one, shortcomings in current art-logistics practices were addressed and prototypes rigorously tested in lab and practical environments, to ensure infallible performance and intuitive use in the field.

Preventative conservation of works of art is the principal impact of AE Hardware: it is a fundamental re-thinking of handling, shipping, and installation practices, and an unprecedented mitigation of critical-risk to objects of incalculable cultural (+monetary) value. Additionally, AE Hardware brings ergonomic ease to the physical stress of manual handling and, by eliminating the unavoidable risks of traditional contact-handling, reduces the psychological stress borne by the art technicians tasked with safe handling of these precious and fragile objects. AE Hardware also avoids the need for nitrile gloves in handling, and polyethylene blocks in staging, reducing waste from these single-use items.

A five-year design, engineering and testing programme has distilled a complex-array of functionalities into a streamlined system. AE Hardware is: Universal: There are no top, bottom, left or right versions of AE components. You can’t install hardware “upside-down”. This makes ordering and installation simple. Reusable: AE Hardware components can be swapped, shared and re-circulated, reducing cost to the user and the environmental-footprint of manufacturing. Future-Proof: AE Brackets feature universal “click-in” mounting fixtures to accept an open-ended range of hanging accessories (including AE Box-Rings for exhibition hanging and AE Rack Hooks for mesh-screen storage), reducing the need for multiple fixtures and ensuring the hardware’s longevity. Fully-Integrated: AE Clips have flat and spring washers built-in for secure fastening to crate-mounted bolts, reducing the significant risk of loose parts associated with current fixtures. AE Clip eyelets have ~4mm of “float” and a conical lead-in, improving ease of alignment onto crate bolts. Stand-alone: AE Clips feature non-slip pads which function as “feet” to elevate the work during staging, reducing contact-risk, and the inconvenience and waste of polyethylene foam block staging. Invisible: AE Brackets are designed to disappear: painstakingly-engineered for the lowest-possible profile and neutral-grey anodised to blend into shadow during exhibition.