Yesterday, at my internship, I received an assignment from my boss to print out a bunch of designer lookbooks. Told to work at a quick pace, I printed about 15 files; one right after the other. I figured it would take a while to print, so I decided to wait a few minutes. In the meantime, I scanned the latest disco-inspired looks for Marc Jacob’s spring collection. All of the sudden, my boss stormed in the room frantically demanding the new prints. I calmly told her that they were currently printing and that I was just about to head down to the copy room to check the status. As soon as she left, I became frantic myself. I ran to the copy room only to see a red light flashing from the printer screen, indicating a paper jam. Apparently, you can only print one document at a time. Not fifteen. I opened all sorts of compartments until I found the source of the problem. I pulled out a piece of paper now resembling one of those oriental hand fans. I cooled myself down as the printer started to warm up again. I stuffed the crumpled deterrent into the trash, but a few minutes later, I pulled it out, realizing its visual appeal.
The jammed paper reminded me of an exhibit I saw last Spring Break at MOMA in New York City. The exhibit was named Paper: Pressed, Stained, Slashed, Folded. The works displayed were simple, yet visually compelling. I was specifically drawn to a series by Dorthea Rockburne called Locus. The series consists of five large pieces of paper, all in a row. Rockburne’s decision to display the papers like this is an important aesthetic choice. It leads the viewer to first see the five pieces as a collection and then move closer to the piece. Looking up close, I found that the paper was folded multiple times, some folds lighter than the others. The intricate folds are compositionally balanced creating a unique design within each piece. The folds intersect at one point on each sheet, hence the title. The folds in the paper also create shapes and shadows within the canvas. Although this work is a simple concept and does not exaggerate artistic skill or craftsmanship, I feel that Rockburne is expressing an important idea. There is a quiet complexity to her work. Manipulating a basic canvas to make shapes and figures transforms the canvas into a medium itself. Rockburne’s work has inspired me to find beauty in simplicity, especially in these economic times, when art-making can become expensive.
I loved your post. I went through like 5 others before deciding on one to write on, but immediately was drawn to yours. From how you started talking about your internship to the actual focus/prompt. Using paper as a medium is nothing I feel has ever been brought up, or at least nothing I’ve ever considered a possibility. It’d be really interesting to see these papers up close. I feel very left out actually, because it all just sounds so curious. I mean, I feel like most people wouldn’t find a piece of folded paper all that spectacular, but…I’m not most people. I wrote an entire paper once on how every piece of paper touched, crimpled, marked in any way by pen, marker, pencil, oil paint as a Monet landscape…becomes entirely unique and non-replicable, foreverrr. So, I really enjoy folded paper and always find beauty in it too ☺ Simple beauty is always the best.
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What I really liked about your post was how you didn’t just talked about the exhibit, you really introduced it. From that introduction, it’s great to see how the idea of the exhibit could have come to life (with the relation to your experience in the copy room). I liked how you talked about the levels of complexity of something that looks so simple, but really isn’t. All too often, we overlook a piece of art that actually as many more layers to it (in not only visual art, but all the other art forms as well). Thanks for posting about this exhibit; I’ve really enjoyed reading about all of the different visual art pieces from the blogs of these two sections. It’s really opened my eyes to a whole new world.
ReplyDeletelike the comments before me--i like this post! the bit about the copy machine was fun to read. the exhibit sounds so cool--paper is such a basic material that can go so far. this reminds me of another post of clover's from a while ago that was about craft vs. art...a lot of times we dismiss things that are simple as not being art. i wish i could have seen this exhibit, it sounds like it was really interesting.
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