APRIL 2010

At Denbigh Fine Art Services, we handle artwork in almost every medium imaginable. As you can see below, some pieces require more hands than others. The work pictured below is Wreckage, a sculpture by Vancouver artist Jamie Salmon.



Seen here at the artist’s studio, Avatar Sculpture Works, Wreckage is an incredibly realistic sculpture. If you haven’t already guessed, she’s the large lady surrounded by Denbigh staff members.



In March 2010, Denbigh was contacted to begin arranging the shipment of this work to an art gallery in Murcia, Spain. We’ve shipped several of Jamie Salmon’s and his partner Jackie Seo’s works to Spain and Portugal over the past few years. However, the scale of this piece and its fragility posed some unique challenges for our staff.















The first challenge was to hand carry the work out of the studio space. Our staff had to negotiate a narrow hallway and then slowly make their way down a flight of stairs to the loading bay of the building. This is where experienced fine art handling was definitely challenged.

The sculpture was then carefully loaded onto our truck, packed in a pre-built foam carriage and securely fastened for transport. The air ride suspension and temperature control in our truck ensured that the piece had a smooth journey across town.

Wreckage is made of silicon rubber applied to an underlying fiberglass structure. The silicon surface has been masterfully painted to simulate human skin tone and texture. All of the hair used to create Wreckage was applied by hand. Although the piece is very well constructed, it is extremely fragile and easily damaged.



Our carpenters designed and built a unique crate that allowed the sculpture, its base and other components to be packed in one unit. This reduced the packaging and shipping costs for the artists. The inside of the crate was lined with Coroplast, a corrugated plastic product that provided a smooth and clean surface.



The sculpture had to be shipped horizontally because it was too high for all the freighter aircraft flying out of Vancouver to Europe. Once we loaded the base and components into the crate it was time to start packing the sculpture. Different types of foam were used to cushion the work inside the crate. Below you can see one of our carpenters taking measurements for braces to support the sculpture’s arm and head.

The piece was wrapped in polyethaline for protection against dust and a precaution against the unlikely event of any dramatic humidity change. The head could not be wrapped because the hair was too fragile.




Braces were attached at numerous points in the case before a final vapor barrier was attached to cover the entire sculpture.

Once the wrapping and packing was complete to ensure safe transport, the lid was bolted into place and the case was ready to ship. Wreckage was delivered to the gallery in Murcia, Spain on May 20, 2010.



In May 2008, we shipped the sculpture above to the same gallery in Spain.



Entitled “Desolation”, the sculpture arrived safe and sound in Spain.  The image above shows Jamie Salmon touching up the hair on the piece.



Jamie Salmon, Self-Portrait, 2006. Image courtesy of Avatar Sculpture Works


Chris, 2007                                    Listening, 2009
Images courtesy of Avatar Sculpture Works

For more information on the work of these two amazing artists, please visit Jamie Salmon and Jackie Seo’s website.


Old Lady With A Walking Stick, 2009. Image courtesy of Avatar Sculpture Works