2100 Smallman St. Pittsburgh, PA 15222 | 412.261.7003 | www.contemporarycraft.org
The four pieces submitted were once mass-produced, paper products each intended for a specific purpose and are transformed through the ancient technique of embroidery. They become textile-like through the repetition of embroidered lines of thread made of cotton, silk, and wool directly sewn onto the paper. The embroidery is done by hand and not machine which makes time a very vital component to the transformation process.
I am experimenting wit both gold acrylic paint and real 23K gold leaf on the work in this body of work. The acrylic is painted directly onto the found product before I begin to sew and the gold leaf applied when the piece is close to completion. I select gold because of its implied metaphors. It completes the spectrum from the divine to the scientific and is considered, in every regard, precious and valuable. Visually it pushes the pice to become even more fragile and less physical.
I use similar color thread, ranging in its tints and shades, to match the color of the graphics or writing of the original package or wrapper. By doing this, both states of the defined and the infinite coincide together in the artwork. The background is separated from the thread close up but is also integrated into one color field from a distance and creates a new piece appearing like cloth.
My work is about craftsmanship of the hand, contradictions, scale, perception and transformation of the found object. I identify myself intimately with the found objects I select. They are memoirs of events, circumstances, experiences and people. I seek to keep the past through these collected items by reconstructing them and allowing them to become their own identity. The pieces become part of a larger dialogue and the dichotomy of contradictions is apparent – the impermanence of mass-produced material made into artifact and relic, excess versus scarcity and value, and Eastern versus Western Culture.
Nicola Ginzel
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