fragments, 1 - 8, folded, pulp sprayed recycled cotton paper wet sheet collaged onto over-beaten linen paper, dimensions; derivative of an A3 dimensions, each fragment is unique
fragments
of euclidean space suspended within the folds of smooth space
from the Representation by Touch suite of books
2023, folio of 8 digital prints on Canson ….
one unique paperwork. and accompanying essay.
edition of eight folios, and three artists proof folios.
52 x 68 cm (open)
the folios are the culmination of the fragments project, a body of paperworks exhibited at Grey Hand Press December 2023. The fragments emerged out of a studio based investigation into the relationship between linen fibre and cotton fibre underpinned by Gillies Deleuze and Felix Gutarri’s “smooth space and striated space”. Two types of plant fibre were used to make this work, linen (a bast fibre) and cotton (a seed fibre). Paper formed from linen takes on an unpredictably dramatic form as it shrinks while it’s drying. Cotton fibres in contrast are relatively stable while drying. Imbedded in each sheet of linen paper is a fragment of cotton paper shaped by the rigid folded forms of Euclidean geometry. The dramatic organic form of these fragments were drawn out the edges of the linen fibre as it was restraint dried.
A third element critical to the works exhibited form emerged within the various iterations of this work. This is a structure, a surface, a substrate within, across, upon which an insoluble tension is inherently reliant, and without which the insoluble tension dissipates. Within this body of work that surface is the wall on which the paper has been restraint dried. Over the period of it’s making it has become very apparent that the success of this material form in capturing an insoluble tension, is critically reliant on the work remaining in touch with, fixed to, the surface of the wall. Removing the paper off the geometric plane/plain on which the cotton paper lies, off the wall, dissipates the tension between the cotton and linen papers. Removed from the wall these works become a shadow of their former “selves”.
The folio box holds eight digitally printed high resolution photographs of the exhibited set of paper works. Each folio also holds one of the unique exhibited paperworks wet sheet collaged onto a fresh sheet of paper, and an essay about the work.
reception;
collections;
exhibitions:
fragments, Grey Hand Press, 2023