I’ve posted the work of Jill Sylvia before. These are new pieces in her “Ledger” series which take the work in a new direction, three dimensional paper cuts. Using a scalpel and a straight edge, Jill carefully removes the cells from ledger paper leaving only horizontal and vertical rules. What is left Jill describes as transformed to have a new value different from the original ledger sheets. Value as art though meticulous labor.
Her newest three dimensional pieces are intricate works of patience. Papercrafting buildings shaped like state run offices is made more difficult by using cast off ledger sheets, which usually drape like lace, but instead maintain their shape. Wish I could see these in person.
This is the kind of art that inspires me to get out of my office and into the studio to make something. I find inspiration in this kind of art which utilizes an easy to understand technique in a novel way. I think to myslef, “I could do that”, but of course I couldn’t and didn’t. Inspiring though.
Ledger sheets are traditionally used to record the financial transactions of a business or an individual. They are the material of economics. In an attempt to understand our need to quantify our transactions, I employ this paper. I use a drafting knife to individually remove tens of thousands of boxes from this paper, leaving behind the lattice of the grid intended to separate the boxes. I involve myself in this routine of trying to make time and labor palpable while communicating its loss. I am concerned with the manner in which this material is recontextualized by way of process, (and consequent futility), and how the resulting voids suggest “that the methods we employ to arrange our world provide more insight into ourselves than that which we seek to organize.
you are the master of finding and sharing paper coolness. thanks for all you do to open our eyes.
this one blows me away.
Comment by michelle ward — April 27, 2009 @ 9:05 am
Michelle, you made my day. Thanks for the nice words. You inspire me to keep looking!
Jills work is pretty insane, huh? I mean, in a good way insane, not rubber walls and medication insane. You have to have patience to do this work, but I wonder how therapeutic it is for a certain kind of person. I’m working on a project at the moment which requires 2000 identical pieces of paper craft. I don’t find it obsessive, it’s actually nice to just focus on a goal and listen to podcasts. Better than watching stupid TV!
Jason
Comment by Jason Thompson — April 27, 2009 @ 9:41 am
Wow!!! wow wow wow! Amazing! Thanks for sharing her work!
Comment by Aubrey — April 27, 2009 @ 11:18 am
Like a writer finding the precise word…that’s the comparison that comes to me. I cannot imagine the patience or the vision to have seen the possibilities in ledger paper.
Comment by Marylinn Kelly — April 27, 2009 @ 5:09 pm
I have to say, your last few posts have been truly inspiring. (And while I’m such a slacker that I haven’t responded to any of your requests for comments, I am compelled to do so now!)
I am, as a general rule, a fan of meticulous (and meaningful) use of paper–but this goes beyond fandom. What a push to get back to “creating” and not just “making” with paper!
Comment by Kelly — April 27, 2009 @ 6:05 pm
Unbelievably inspirational!
Thanks for sharing.
Comment by Judy Wilkenfeld — April 28, 2009 @ 7:06 am