WPLN News Archive; 02 Dragon Park (Adrienne) 10 28 98; News Archive 1/8/99-2/5/99

but after seventeen years and nationally unsupported among the two huge mosaic tile dragons a dragon part the young dragons got in trouble about a year ago though as they grew older their bodies are softer and their mosaic tiles sharper last january metal parks board declared the landmarks and say an elected a fence around the drive is a little over a month ago sculpture conservatory shelley reesman pain and a team of experts came to their rescue in places the country is so soft that if a child jumped on it because if what they're going to discuss what may not look like the dragons are in trouble or that she takes so much work to get them back in shape the conservation project is much more complicated and gloom a couple of tiles here and there to begin with the dragons are about a hundred fifty feet long and haven't had any conservation oversight since the chilean artist pedro silva created in the nineteen eighty one silver and his assistant talk community volunteers how to use thousands of birds of different colored tile to make mistakes in the bodies of both dragons the result is a colorful grouping of sea creatures sports

stars spaceships flowers and so the figures in famous monuments to keep the fun loving industry attacked the concert tours must now remove whole sections of the dragon and replaced the concrete structure behind the mosaic work before putting the sanctions back together like a jigsaw puzzle you mother dragged in and her little baby it's in and out of the water around her the water is really a gigantic sample out and dragon has a very long tail that curves around a tree and the idea that to reagan goes in and out of the water twice and then the baby dipped in and out of the water around their lesson with detail and the underside of the arch is of the next of the dragon is this kind of undulating concrete surface that was

made when the sculptor hunger or latin bands from the sculpture and then filled with concrete know to get this theory organic moving surface it's taken a team of experts including a structural engineer a geologist a chemist a landscape architect and a material scientist to determine the best solution for dragon preservation the problem is that the dragons have been secretly sucking up water while that might be good for people payne says is disastrous for outdoor mosaic tile concrete sculpture the foundations that were built for this culture one that sealed so they're like straws sucking moisture up from the ground right into the hollow parts of the sculpture the water inside has deteriorated the country to such a degree they're at once in one place we actually ahead a break occurred straight through the sculpture the water has also caused thick layers of calcite something looks like harder to cover large sections of the colorful tile

dragons as a calcite is taken over ydstie laminated the tiles and broken the country are mature scale of each particle to expand these trials follow their time to work and in most cases over half of the time the city has tried to say the dragons in the past they put a long black bands around one of the dragons are just like cancer five years ago they put a big man a turnaround but payne says that instead of helping the dragons dry out because something like an underground swimming pool and now the only way we can get there until we get a thin layer of the surface and then hand it's great thing to be sure that we don't scrape with plenty of dragons is a delicate process is a high pressure solution because

it was more profitable they have to be finished actually threatened by thanksgiving in the meantime she's plenty of onlookers anxiously await the dragons reverse children here this week to play and we tell them that we would make investments and they will be ready in a couple months and it'll be safe for them to play if you see pain or whatever crew working on the sculpture feel free to ask about the project for national public radio i'm adrian outlaw