Week Thirty | Power of Paper
“Open, it stretches; closed, it rolls up. it can be contracted or expanded; hidden away or displayed”
— Fu Xian
“Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart.”
— William Wordsworth
“I ain’t never far away from a pencil and paper or a tape recorder.”
— Dolly Parton
A quick video of the paper casting efforts from this week.
I am beginning to see paper as a medium rather than as a substrate or material. Can I blur the boundaries of material and medium? If I cast paper with the charcoal within it, both become medium rather than, or possibly as well as material. I love this idea.
Paper is the medium on which human history has been written, communicating ideas and knowledge. In modern times we use paper for so much and as we look to replace plastic in packaging new materials are emerging with which to make paper. I find myself looking differently at the beautiful constructions of packaging materials, the honeycomb structures of protective cardboard layers when new things arrive at the door, a renewed respect for how much work it would take to recreate this thing and by contrast how quickly it becomes peeled away from the object which it protects and discarded.
Process notes and observations
Soaking has been key. Thanks to Roz in DCS for the tip, I have been soaking for 5-7 days and the pulp is much finer
I am using discarded paper at present rather than the compost heap as I wanted to clarify the process and then experiment with the funky stuff
I want to make ‘paper on paper’ drawings - 3D casts of drawn marks from the landscape. This feels very clear and achievable and bang on point for me
I am enjoying being more process driven and less up in my head about grief and climate change. My work is still about those things but I am learning to be specific and process driven rather than keeping the feelings suspended in my mind and body all the time. I think the doom was causing more despair in me than I perhaps had realised, although I do think it was necessary to confront those themes, especially residual personal grief from my childhood
I am a bit annoyed that this process has lead to yet more amazon orders and plastic packaging to get me where I want to go. Hopefully the process will become more recycling driven and less consumption based. The point after all is to recreate something akin to a compost heap.
I am enjoying reaching out in the community to obtain packaging for the process. I have asked on our facebook noticeboard for a shredder, soft foam and felt and immediately not only had offers of great stuff but curiosity from the community and lots of people asking questions about my project. My friend James is bringing huge bags of pre-shredded white paper, which is ideal as it cuts out the collecting and shredding parts, which are tedious plus it intercepts materials that would otherwise be discarded
I am seeking a balance between what I imagine to be pristine, gallery-worthy, bright white paper sculptures and the reality of brown, goey compost derived paper. I am learning to develop my work from an authentic place borne of trial and error than make beautiful pieces. My experience in the past has shown that making authentic work will lead eventually to something I find visually profound. Trust the process.
I have bought some kaolin, which I am hoping will add more clay like properties to the pulp but I have not yet used it. I have also ordered some paper porcelain clay, which I am excited about. It needs firing so I will have to appeal to local ceramicists - more opportunities for collaboration. I am excited about our clay experiments in the Thursday sessions this week and remembered this morning that the first two years of my BA were in fact sculpture. I had almost forgotten about clay!
I will continue to read about the principles of paper making and experiment. I need to get a production line going as the absence of warm weather means each drying session takes ages so I need to make more.
Above a whole range of experiments with paper casting. I really like the way some of them are going and I think the pulp is a lot better with longer soaking and using squeezy bottles.