Paper Translations
Exhibition: Never Ending Poetry
Artist: Group Exhibition - Various Artists
Overview
We can easily be inspired by the visual cues we encounter throughout the works in Never Ending Poetry. Using a range of materials, the artists use shape, form, colour and line to create their compositions and reinterpretations of realistic imagery or objects.
If we explore Katie Ohe’s Mysore Crow, we see how a direct visual reference can be used as a starting point for reinterpretation. The identifying characteristics of the crow, its head and beak, are translated linearly in to welded steel. The details are absent, taking the viewer away from direct visible reality, and the material offers a new dynamic translation.
In this activity, participants will use colourful linear paper strips to create a composition informed by line, shape, form and colour. Participants will work from a realistic landscape reference to reinterpret it in to a new visual language. We will explore how we can create visual representation in a completely new form that is mediated by our choice in material.
Objectives
Create a visual composition through shape, line, colour and form.
Interpret a realistic visual reference in to an abstract form.
Explore a unique material approach to develop and further broaden our approach to visual language.
Materials
Recycled cardboard box (ie, cereal, crackers, pasta etc.)
Scissors
Ruler
Pencil
Clear tape
Coloured construction paper lengths cut to 1” width (approx. 30-40 strips per participant)
1 piece of construction paper for background
Instructions:
Step One
Select your reference that you will use to inspire your paper translation. Working with the paper strips will be very new process for many participants so we would suggest using a simple landscape reference. It is not necessary to have an image in front of you, you can just work from what you can picture in your mind. This will help us to not get distracted or overwhelmed with details we might see in a specific image we have in front of us. Our mind has already started doing some of the editing for us. Here are a few ideas you could use; a sunset, a winter morning, ocean view, prairie skies, river through a valley etc.
Step Two
Take your recycled cardboard box and cut the face down to a 1” depth so that it can contain and frame your 1” paper strips. The original length and width of your box can vary.
Step Three
Gather paper strips in you choice of colour that you will need to work with to create your landscape.
If you would like, you can select a background colour to make your paper strips really stand out against the cardboard. Cut your background paper to the length and width of the bottom of your box and secure in place with tape or glue.
Step Four
Begin creating your composition. First, start by “drawing” the main lines in your composition. In the example, you can see we started with the horizon line of our ocean. Tape this piece in place as it will be used to support the papers you add to “fill in” that area of your composition. Tape the paper on the sides the box as well as to the bottom.
It will be difficult using paper strips to recreate your landscape realistically. But that is the beauty in this exercise. The material is mediating and forcing us to create an abstracted form. Our colour choice and how we manipulate the paper strips with be the new language we are using to depict the nuances of the chosen landscape.
Step Five
Once you have the main composition lines “drawn”, begin filling in those sections with paper strips. Have fun and play around with how you can bend, curve, pleat and overall manipulate the paper. Most times the paper will choose how it wants to fill in the space, and we can allow that freedom. If there are any spots you want to direct or control the paper more, just use a little tape to secure it in place so that it can’t move as freely.
