The
Paper-works
series began as an exploration of material. At the time, I was
completing graduate school and looking to combine materials with
detritus plastic to form new relationships and engage different processes of
'making'. During that three year period I had made three
monumental sculptures from smaller plastic components (among a variety
of 'small explorations') and I found myself applying for exhibitions
with very few recent works. The paper sculptures were quick and
simple. As such, it seemed a logical next step to explore the
dichotomy between everlasting, man-made materials and the organic,
easily decomposed paper; and even though wood fibre has been manipulated
to serve our purposes, it still is a relatively clean transformation of
one object into another.
The previous years had witnessed sculptures that challenged our common
notions of materials through a comparison between plastic (as an
element) and geological processes. These paper works are a
continuation of this line of thought due to the 'accumulative' process
of spraying paper onto plastic with a hopper gun, and the rock-like
texture inherent in the drying process. With the exception of
Asylum (named so because of the reference to the grid-like padded
cell), the other four pieces have simply been named by for various geological phenomens, an
allusion to the longevity of the synthetic material, the
sediment-like sculptural process, and our society's detachment from
materials that last while objects fail.
These sculptures are made from plastic collected on the streets of
Montreal, QC over a one month period as well as used photocopier paper
from Concordia University. The paper is mulched in an ordinary
blender and sprayed, layer upon layer, onto the plastic until the matrix
of paper fibres is strong enough to hold everything together.
There are no adhesives added to the paper. |
