Paper Vases
2019
Handmade paper using a variety of recycled, discarded and foraged materials. See Paper Inventory for more information about these materials.
Paper Vases is a research-based project investigating the use of discarded household materials (mainly paper) as “raw” material, similar to clay. Recycled paper, food scraps and other accumulated domestic items were blended into a pulp. The pulp was pressed into sheets, which were then rolled into coils. The coils were stacked on top of one another forming the shape of a traditional ceramic vessel. This form of intimate recycling is done by hand, in “house” rather than transported and processed by machine at an industrial facility, off-site. I consider this project to be an accessible, creative way of processing “waste”, and decreasing “waste” while simultaneously probing the following questions:
Can paper (a lightweight, short-lived, material) be manipulated to mimic ceramic (a precious, long-lived, fragile material)? Does this mimicry give paper more value, as it take a more “precious form”? Or less value, since it’s porous and wouldn’t function as many vases do? Could the absorption of water be a function of a vase? Is it reasonable or perhaps favorable, to have objects which intentionally deteriorate with time? What functions could a paper vase have? Would you treat it like paper, or like a vase? What can we learn about ourselves through observing the dys/function of a paper vase? In a relationship with one other, where one of you is a flower in water, in a paper vase, and one of you is the paper vase, would you consider yourself more of a flower, or a paper vase? Is this relationship parasitic or mutually beneficial, or both?
These vases were featured as center pieces at A Meal Among Friends, an evening of cooking and community, hosted by the League of Kitchens, Listings Project, and Lorem Ipsum at Lee’s on Canal. All items were foraged in Ridgewood, Queens.
