Cabinet of Cardboard Curiosities
Cube 37, Frankston Arts Centre, 2018
'Cabinets of curiosities, also known as ‘wonder rooms’, were small collections of extraordinary objects which … attempted to categorise and tell stories about the wonders and oddities of the natural world.' 1
I investigate the natural world for shapes and patterns. I like to discover the remnant, seedpods, bones, shells, things left over once a life-process has occured. Elements of these forms I abstract, recombine and build on a large scale to make landscapes and inhabitants that are eerily familiar. These sculptures show the strangeness and wonder of the microscopic or minute, drawing attention to the repetitive patterns that build life and complexity, and remain after death.
My choice of cardboard as material has been driven by several factors. It is easy to get hold of, not inherently beautiful and is considered 'rubbish'. Cardboard is man-made; it is dead organic matter. I imagine that it has a cellular memory of being a plant and wants to reform into these organic shapes. It remembers being a plant.
I draw on to the surface to transform it further, lavishing detail onto what began as rubbish. These sculptures are memorials to the plants that once were an idea reinforced by the black of the monochrome colour scheme.
In its role as packaging, cardboard is symbolic of the excessively consuming mentality that is devastating the natural world. By re-packaging the packaging I suggest a reappraisal of what has value. Rehabilitating ugliness; re-investing the mundane with significance to challenge perceptions and re-presenting it as thought-provoking and beautiful. And a reminder that wonders surround us if we just take the time to look closely enough.
1 Quote from British Library website
I investigate the natural world for shapes and patterns. I like to discover the remnant, seedpods, bones, shells, things left over once a life-process has occured. Elements of these forms I abstract, recombine and build on a large scale to make landscapes and inhabitants that are eerily familiar. These sculptures show the strangeness and wonder of the microscopic or minute, drawing attention to the repetitive patterns that build life and complexity, and remain after death.
My choice of cardboard as material has been driven by several factors. It is easy to get hold of, not inherently beautiful and is considered 'rubbish'. Cardboard is man-made; it is dead organic matter. I imagine that it has a cellular memory of being a plant and wants to reform into these organic shapes. It remembers being a plant.
I draw on to the surface to transform it further, lavishing detail onto what began as rubbish. These sculptures are memorials to the plants that once were an idea reinforced by the black of the monochrome colour scheme.
In its role as packaging, cardboard is symbolic of the excessively consuming mentality that is devastating the natural world. By re-packaging the packaging I suggest a reappraisal of what has value. Rehabilitating ugliness; re-investing the mundane with significance to challenge perceptions and re-presenting it as thought-provoking and beautiful. And a reminder that wonders surround us if we just take the time to look closely enough.
1 Quote from British Library website