Inception – Charity Auction for Make 2nds Count

‘Shadow Block’ is one of a series of all-black artworks that I’ve been making since 2000. Hand-made paper is ordered and organised in boxed constructions reflecting simple compositions and relationships. A lot of my time is taken up with the mundane but necessary production of hundreds of sheets of hand-made paper from newspapers. I depend on the characteristics and irregularities that such rough paper pulp provides as these qualities contrast with the uniform nature of the geometric grid.

Although my constructions reflect a minimalist sensibility the making process is far removed from the machine aesthetic of Minimalism as the paper forms are all hand-drawn, hand-cut, hand-coloured and hand glued. I depend on the characteristics and irregularities that such rough paper pulp provides, and these qualities deflect from the otherwise uniform nature of the basic material. Other works are constructed using manufactured white card where variation comes through the repetitive process of cutting the same shape, over, and over again.

Mathematical precision, calculation and sequential ordering all figure within my process but there are no preparatory drawings to work from. The forms themselves evolve wholly through the process of cutting and stacking, with the combination of curves, straight lines, and geometric pattern, creating gently undulating surfaces that rise and fall like bumps, humps, hollows and ridges. Although the surface may appear solid from a distance it is of course simply made from edges and gaps. Whilst landscape terms do sometimes appear as titles these references are by association rather than specific source material.

BA (Hons) Fine Art, Gray's School of Art, Aberdeen
MA Printmaking, Royal College of Art, London

www.juliagardiner.co.uk
https://www.instagram.com/juliapulp/