As one of the packing & crating suppliers for the Biennial, FINE ART SHIPPING had the challenge of figuring out how to deal with this artwork, which was originating at the artist’s studio here in Los Angeles.

Among the challenges:

• too big to fit in our local trucks
• too large for normal handling via the Whitney elevators
• a piece that was both delicate AND heavy
• and most fun of all, changing dimensions as the artist continued to work on the piece

After much back and forth with the studio and the Whitney curators, it was decided to prebuild a slat crate structure for the piece, rather than fabricate a full museum standard crate. The slat or “skeleton” crate would save crucial inches off the height and width, and every whisker of an inch counted.

OK, so we will deliver the prebuilt crate to the studio, and pack the work there and then…but wait. Once crated it turns out the packed crate will be too large to exit out of the studio doorway. And if packed outside, it won’t fit back in. “Baby” can’t be left in the street!  More phone calls and emails.

In the end we used the studio lift (thank goodness for their help!) to get the piece into the base of the slat crate, then finished packing the crate outside the studio, on the pavement beyond the studio doors. Luckily, a quiet street. Luckily, not raining. Only a bit of sawing and repositioning of braces was required due to the artist adding a couple of hundred pounds of concrete to the thing since we had last seen it… All in a day’s work. Then on a preplanned “just in time” basis the Whitney’s climate controlled trailer, with larger clearances than our local trucks, stopped by and we loaded “Baby” into the trailer. Very carefully.

In the best possible way, we were happy to see him go. That’s one big baby.

Betsy Dorfman

Chris Barber