​
Paperscapes
Paperscapes explored the possibilities of paper as a medium, which now straddles the divide between the analog past of print and our current digital age. Using a mixture of traditional and experimental techniques, these four artists created immersive environments that challenge our traditional understanding of paper as simply a vehicle for the printed word. Incorporating light, shadow, sound, and texture, these installations responded to the architectural setting of the Art Alliance, transforming its turn-of-the-century domestic interior into an otherworldly space.
For this exhibition, Sun Young Kang created two immersive environments based on two different uses of paper to explore the concept of “emptiness.” Her work In Between Presence and Absence was composed of paper sculptures cast on empty containers such as bowls, vases, cups, bottles and pots. Rather than the physical containers themselves, Kang's casting process allowed for the materialization of the invisible, which symbolizes her interest in the “emptiness of the visual world.” Her second installation, In-Between, consisted of many tiny tubes of paper suspended horizontally in the gallery, and visitors activated motion-detector lights creating shadows on the ceiling. This weightless environment emphasized her interest in creating a non-physical space. As Kang states, “viewers feel the weight of the shadow from above to perceive the idea of the non-physical side through the image of shadows from above.”
Focused on the ambiguities of language and the word as well as the medium of paper--two things that have long been intertwined--Dawn Kramlich created two installations using laser cut mat board to explore ways in which we communicate semantically within our changing culture. Kramlich considers herself as a ‘wordsmith’, using repetition, layering and text-specificity in sculptures and installations to examine the moments when language fails to accomplish one of its base claims, which is clarification. As the artist states, “Language is a shape-shifter; each consecutive participant’s perception molds it anew, and I deconstruct moments of communication or miscommunication by simultaneously drawing attention to such interstices and using them as a metaphor for multiple modes of existence.”
Elizabeth Mackie’s Ortler Mountain Project was a grouping of her of sculptures, installations, artist books, video and sound works exploring the effects of global warming on the Ortler Mountain Range and the surrounding Italian village of Sulden. The project addressed topics including glacier loss over 100 years, the nature of the mountains, water flow, kettle formation,topography and sound. For this exhibition, Mackie presented works from two of the project’s installations. Both utilize imagery obtained from photographs of the kettle formation of the mountains, which are sediment-filled bodies of water formed by retreating glaciers. They are constructed from large sheets of handmade paper with multiple hand-cut silhouettes of kettles. The work was accompanied by a soundscape by video and sound artist, Kaitlyn Paston.
Susan White is focused on the manipulation of the book as an object. She enjoys taking books apart and reassembling them to situate them into a new context. She creates installations that are “essentially” deconstructed books by manipulating pages to create structures. Text,images and writing on the surface of the book pages are visible in parts. Her installation for this exhibition, entitled Encircle, was composed of screen printed, climbing wild roses that trailed throughout the gallery. Text appeared as small rubber bumpers that contain words lifted from the pages of books. A castle was created from the pages of books that are torn into strips, reassembled, and rolled into cylinders to create the clusters of cells. These clusters resembled hornet’s nests, barnacles and honeycomb, which are all structures that are all painstakingly built by very small creatures for housing and protection.
