By Annabel Dobbyn
The year is 2016. Beyonce’s Lemonade comes out, the beloved David Bowie passes on, and American politicians are at each other’s throats. Now open twitter, not X, and see that one of the top trending videos is a gorilla. No, not Harambe, the gorilla shot and killed at the Cincinnati zoo. This gorilla is in– is that the International Space Station?
Clip acquired from Euronews. Originally posted by Scott Kelly via Twitter.
In 2016 former astronaut and current Arizona Senator Mark Kelly sent his twin brother, Scott Kelly, a gorilla suit as a care package during Scott’s year-long stint on the International Space Station. Hijinks commenced almost immediately. From filming educational videos to nearly sending a fellow astronaut into cardiac arrest, the gorilla suit made its orbit before returning to earth. Folded up and placed into an unknown box, waiting.
For certain high ranking government officials, they may have the privilege of requesting loans from the Smithsonian collection or potentially other government organizations, though this is not a guarantee. When Senator Kelly came into office in 2022, he had a very particular vision. We do not know how this conversation played out, but we like to imagine it went something like this.
Welcome Senator Kelly. Your office walls are plain, desks are sturdy, and drawers are flowing with number two pencils and green paper clips.
Thank you, I am excited to serve the people. Though, the walls are very plain indeed.
We could try asking the Smithsonian. How about a Monet?
Eh. Too pale.
A Picassso?
Not before I’ve had my morning coffee.
A Van Gogh?
Far too ostentatious. Why don’t we just ask NASA for my spacesuit?
Sure?
Senator Kelly’s spacesuit prior to Caring for Textiles treatment.
Although it was a great honor to have the spacesuit on display in the office, there was something lacking. It appeared like a child trying on his father’s tie. The jumpsuit hung limply off of the mannequin form, the 25 lb weight of the helmet forcing the head down. An attempted counterbalance left a 10 lb dumbbell at the back of the form.
Senator Kelly’s spacesuit prior to Caring for Textiles treatment.
This was not the pride and splendor which should accompany an American astronaut. This is where Caring for Textiles was brought in, to give a greater sense of presence to the spacesuit, remove the dumbbell, and oh of course just one small detail: the gorilla mask had to go inside the helmet.
Our first step was to carefully remove the spacesuit from its case and transport it to an area where it could be treated easily. Upon closer examination of the suit we realized an important bit of information, taking a spacesuit on and off is in fact not an intuitive process. We did a lot of preparatory work, such as sewing black fabric weights and constructing 12 custom made padded pillow inserts of particular body shapes. Thankfully, we exist within the age of the internet, and one quick google search (thank you, MythBusters Youtube channel) had us cruising.
Our research revealed it would be very difficult to remove the suit from the mannequin form, especially given that mannequin bodies are not remotely as flexible as human bodies. Our access was extremely limited and we realized we had to operate through the back opening of the suit. We needed to fill out the torso area so we cut a “fatshirt” along the side seams so we could work it over the form like a bib.
This created the necessary overall bulk required; however, more work was still needed for the chest and shoulders. We inserted smaller padded pillows in the shoulder areas to give him a more commanding posture, and then we filled in the pectoral area with larger padded pillows. Often, the most exciting aspects of conservation work come from what you do not expect to find. Imagine our glee when we opened him up and discovered the gorilla suit was being utilized as internal padding!
To articulate the fingers of the gloves, we cut long thin strips of volara foam, folded them over 2-3 times, and inserted them using the end of a spatula. As always in conservation, we want to ensure our work is reversible, so we left our inserts with long tags for ease of removal in the future. Thanks to the volara, the new fingers are able to be posed as well as supported.
Soon enough we had the spacesuit back on its stand, this time leaning forward against it for greater support, with a brand new accessory.
We then moved it back into its case, placed weights behind the helmet to hold the head up, made final touch ups, and voila! Caring for Textiles has completed its first treatment of a spacesuit.
The curse of the textile conservator is that we most frequently deal with items linked to violence. Flags from battered warships, clothing items of genocide victims, etc. Even a beloved tunic casts a shadow of sorrow in my mind, what circumstances was this person led to to relinquish their favorite clothing item? It truly was a blessing to work on an artifact imbibed with wonder, curiosity, and so much laughter.
And yes, I did put on the gorilla mask.
All photographs by Caring for Textiles unless otherwise stated.
