Valentin Bakardjiev. Le Grand Bleu. Indigo, ink, Shibori on Wenzhou and Washi paper on board. The artwork was presented at the IAPMA exhibition “APPROACH ” 2021 in Toyota City, Japan.
SILENT STRENGTH
International Association of Hand Papermakers and Paper Artists (IAPMA) e.V.
www.iapma.info
ISBN 978-9934-9141-2-6
ISSN 2415-640x
Imagine
Heike Berl in collaboration with Papierwerk Glockenbach, Germany
This edition of 750 sheets of paper for the IAPMA Bulletin cover was made with linters and pine fibers, a shredded lexicon, a gold embossed circle and a blue wing ink drawing. Each handmade paper is unique and signed on the verso by the Dresden-based artist Heike Berl. Her concept was influenced by the theme of the IAPMA Bulletin, “Silent Strength,” among others. The use of voluminous fibers and recycled paper with individual pieces from German, English, French and Spanish-language lexicons convey a strong, silent message. Papierwerk Glockenbach is a workshop in Munich run by Annamaria Leiste and Raphael Grotthuss. It stands for quality handmade paper production with a high level of expertise. Having worked together for a few years on different projects, Heike Berl asked them to collaborate to make the IAPMA Bulletin handmade paper cover. The paper was made by Annamaria Leiste and Raphael Grotthuss over weeks with approximately 100 felt layers per day, according to Heike Berl’s concepts. For the format of 14 x 42 cm, DIN A3 moulds were divided to produce two sheets at once per papermaking process.
Heike Berl then produced the gold embossing by hand at Papierwerk Glockenbach in Munich using a Letraset industrial marking machine. After shipping, the ink drawing and signing of the edition were completed in Heike Berl’s studio in Dresden. The motif of the blue wing above a golden circle on handmade paper stands for another aspect of the edition–the wish for a more peaceful world. www.papierwerk-glockenbach.de www.heike-berl.de
BELOW and RIGHT: Heike Berl making paper at Papierwerk Glockenbach. Below photo by Jana Geisler. Right photo by Raphael Grotthuss.
Table of Contents
Tanja Major. 9
The Strength of Paper
Claudio Acuña J., Chile
How strong is the paper? How big can a paper sculpture be? Can paper, being a delicate and fragile material, build a colossal sculpture? In 2023, with these questions as a starting point, the artist Claudio Acuña began an investigation with a specific purpose: to create lifesize whale-shaped sculptures only with paper as a way of confronting the viewer with the largest mammal in the world. A whale that measures 6 meters at birth and reaches 18 meters in its adult stage, this is the humpback whale, recognized for its acrobatic jumps out of the water. Is it possible to construct the whale from a piece of paper without cuts?
The process is a scalable iteration, each figure created is larger than the previous one, achieving the construction of 3 whales 8 meters long. They were installed in 3 cities in Chile, the country where the author resides, and which was until the year 1980 an emblematic place of whaling.
For the year 2024, the construction of 6 life-size whales is planned, always from a rectangle of paper without cuts, only with folds, which is where the paper finds its expressive force through origami, a technique created in Japan that today is one of the few countries that continue hunting the largest mammal on planet Earth. www.factoriapapel.cl
Art Collaboration and Mentoring
Fenneke Wolters-Sinke, UK
In July 2022 I embarked on a new artistic journey when my application for the Mentoring Program run by the Society of Scottish Artists (SSA) was accepted. During the online training sessions, I learnt all about active listening, asking the right questions and how to build a professional relationship with a mentee.
When I first met emerging artist Emma Booth, we clicked immediately and met monthly for a year, both online and in-person. It finished with an exhibition in Glasgow where Emma and I
showed our collaborative art piece “All Together Now;” an Exquisite Corpse book in which each takes turns writing or drawing on a sheet of paper, concealing it in some way and then passing it to the next artist for a further enormous contribution.
Included on the back of our artistic cards is a Renga, a linked poem. It consists of alternating Haiku and couplets, with each stanza written by either artist, reflecting on the past year. (A video of the complete work can be seen on my website www.fenfolio.com).
This collaborative art project gave us the opportunity to push our creative boundaries, learn from each other and explore new techniques and ideas. It harnessed the silent strength of both of us, combining our unique perspectives, skills and experiences to produce an innovative and impactful work. The mentoring program provided us a platform to discover our silent strength, guiding us towards realizing our full potential and overcoming challenges by supporting and encouraging each other.
The ability to endure setbacks, persist through adversity and maintain unwavering focus was crucial for Emma to overcome obstacles and achieve her artistic goals. Her silent strength allowed her to stay true to her vision, even when faced with societal pressures and creative self-doubt. It enabled her to channel her emotions and experiences into developing her art practice into a creative business. In my
Fenneke Wolters-Sinke and Emma Booth. All Together Now 3, Exquisite Corpse book, 2023.
Claudio Acuña J. Finished whale, created from a rectangle of paper, 2023.
case, it gave me reassurance that I’m a worthy mentor for fellow artists!
Paper God
As a child, I did what children do: eat the world. I remember eating grass, and I got afraid of what I had eaten. My mum said it was ok. Then I ate paper. And I told my mother, and she said it was just like eating grass. Which was ok. If I only ate plants, my body would be like a paper beater: chemically and mechanically breaking plants into paper. I started making paper in my twenties. Learning about plants for each paper pulp I made, I found the evidence of God in paper. A paper God, writing the world. The process of photosynthesis, where plants build cellulose using the energy from the sun to split water, taking up hydrogen and carbon and spit out oxygen as trash it doesn’t need. From this, we get oxygen to breath in the present, we get paper to preserve our past. This is too incredible to be a coincidence. Something spiritual has created the substance of chlorophyll –making photosynthesis – possibly this spirit writes prophecies in plant tissue – like thin layers of palimpsests only a papermaker can read. This strength in paper grants me safety for the future, convincing me there is something spiritual guiding us through climate changes.
Experiments in Dissolution
Heather
Matthew, Australia
The Japanese have a philosophy of ‘kintsugi’ or repairing something beautifully, creating a better than new article from something that is broken. When this ethos is applied to paper, it can be used as an art methodology.
For my Masters Arts and Place final project on art and performance, I chose to respond to five sites in the wetlands and creeks of Pottsville, a coastal village in northern New South Wales, Australia. To each site I took some handmade papers, tracing paper and old collaged papers that I had pulled apart. They were scrappy bits that I could experiment with without getting precious if they were damaged by mark making on site.
First, I drew the shadows of plants, rubbed sand into the drawings, then submerged them into a lagoon or the muddy mangrove waters of a creek. I also made drawings while the paper was submerged in the tidal estuary where the creek meets the ocean. The thin papers dissolved or developed holes and fell apart. Other thicker papers emerged from the waters unscathed but with stunning patterns caused by the sand or mud as it slid off the surface.
I reassembled the fragments of papers that dissolved and bonded them together, wet on wet paper. Some of them I stitched onto a backing substrate
where the stitches looked like sutures and became a feature of the artwork. I felt it was a demonstration of hope and provided me with a new way of thinking about being ‘broken.’
These experiments have revealed a new methodology as conscious dissolution, the silent strength that paper as a material demonstrates. I take this forward into my art practice with renewed hope for our ‘broken’ planet. Through change and dissolution comes beauty and adaptability which we will need to navigate the changes ahead.
Pushing the Limits
Jill Powers, USA
I have created art with hand-cast kozo fiber for 24 years (casting, rather than sheet forming), discovering new forming techniques, surface design and color options. I have pushed this fiber to its limits.
What continues to draw me to cast kozo fiber is the quiet presence of the material and the enormous strength of the finished work. Freshly cooked kozo has a malleability and directionality that yields many possibilities. The seemingly delicate forms return to their barklike strength when the work is dry. I usually need no surface coatings to stabilize or protect the fiber. Vessels made of kozo can stand independently and maintain their designed shape.
Heather Matthew. Sutures Mixed media on Paper, stitching, 2024.
Jill Powers. Close Contact. Cast kozo fiber, seed pod, gut membrane, salt, 2018.
The pure qualities of the fibrous webbed structure and the quiet beauty of the surfaces speak of its native integrity. I have developed a wide variety of surface color techniques and pounded texture methods. The same fiber can appear thick and rough with deeply textured cracks and fissures. In other pieces it appears diaphanous and translucent!
Over the years my kozo bark fiber art has taken many forms: wall and installation pieces, book arts, vessel and basketry-like pieces. I also use kozo in
Jo Lynn Alcorn. Polypores and Lichen. Paste papers, Canson Mi-Teintes paper, 2021.
combination with other materials, seaweed, silk and cocoons, gut membrane, seed pods, reeds, mushrooms, iron, wire, sea urchins, wood.
When I am cooking the bark fiber, and working with it, I feel a deep connection to the communities around the world that have bark fiber processing traditions going back many generations. I research those traditions and have made connections with many artists internationally who have trans-
formed the material into innovative forms. I am co-curating (with Lisa Miles) an exhibition of traditional and contemporary bark fiber work, sponsored by North American Hand Papermakers, in Atlanta, GA and Denver CO in the summer and fall of 2024. Watch for news of these shows!
Paper to Lichen
Jo Lynn Alcorn, USA
I began making artwork inspired by to
John Wittenberg. Don’t Smile It’s Serious. Abaca, Flax, Beach,Detritus, Steel, 2023.
Into the River
Bridget Hillebrand, Australia
I have been experimenting with printing on Japanese washi paper for over 25 years. Initially as a substrate to traditional relief prints and more recently allowing layers of washi paper to form three-dimensional sculptural works that fall and protrude from the wall, sharing the viewer’s space. In my site-specific installation ‘River’ exhibited at Manningham Art Gallery in Melbourne, Australia, over 100 meters of washi paper were printed, torn, folded, cut, layered and suspended to imitate the crests and troughs of an ancient waterway.
Moving through the immersive gallery space viewers were provided an opportunity for sustained interaction to explore the materiality of constructed paper that poetically revealed the textural and printed qualities of my creative process. Soft muted tones and the interplay of repetitive printed marks suggested refraction of light, mist and shadow and the natural imperfections of the printed washi paper revealed subtleties in fiber, tone and texture.
Creating an installation on such a large scale broadened my understanding of the versatility and enduring strength and quality of washi paper. Not only did it provide an opportunity to extend and challenge the traditional parameters of how printed works are presented, “River” also extended my exploration of handmade paper and its potential as sculptural form to reveal a particular way of occupying place.
NEW MEMBER SHOWCASE
Emma Scott. Vessels #16. Circumference 200 cm, and #19 circumference 150 cm. Papier mâché, 2022.
The Weaving Path
Elizabeth Lefranc, France
The paper artist suggests a double reading of her works, a pathway from an aesthetic encounter to a narrative, a silent and emotional approach. She breathes new life into life stories. Beyond the aesthetic, she works on the perception of intimacy and time. Between care and expression, she weaves reconstruction and repair.
As a story weaver, through her artworks she invites us to take a step back and tell the story of how, even in the face of an obstacle, it is possible to rebuild oneself and transform an ordeal into a success. What is woven and transformed in the weaving is a metaphor for what we experience in our own lives.
When she exhibited her work in a palliative care unit in 2022, she proposed creating a woven work entitled “L’inattendu” (“The Unexpected”) (65 x 44 cm, 2022, mixed media) in which elements entrusted to her by patients, care givers and families would be mixed together as a reminder of each person’s time there. Paper takes the place of words to express the feelings of each person.
At the 11th Viviane Fontaine International Paper Triennial in Charmey (Switzerland), she exhibited her work “Disparus dispersés” (“Missing and scattere”d) (80 x 80 cm, 2020, mixed media). A ‘genealogical’ tree in which intra-family
ABOVE: Sarah Grace Dye. Paper Vessel. Handmade paper, mixed media drawings, gold thread, 2022. BELOW: Sarah Grace Dye. Fenced. Handmade paper, found wood, gold thread, 2021.
Radical Divination and Performative Papermaking
Gino Robair, USA
Although traditionally a studio-based craft, papermaking involves a rich choreography with performance and ritual qualities. In Radical Divination, I foreground papermaking as a time-based movement practice that utilizes an embodied vocabulary of gestures.
Through my research in the Performance Studies Graduate Group at the University of California Davis, I explore the performative potential in papermaking by deconstructing the physical and mechanical aspects of the craft. The focus is on the process — paper making — rather than on an idealized object. By interrogating established practices, alternative approaches have emerged, which I use to design works promoting interaction between papermakers and artists from other disciplines.
Yet, unlike traditional performance practices, papermaking results in a physical artifact. So, while my research deemphasizes the object in favor of the process, Radical Divination recontextualizes the materialized form, emphasizing paper as a memory. This physical record embodies the interactions from a particular place and time an inscrutable vessel containing the conversation between actors, both living (papermakers) and non-living (water, pulp, mould and deckle, and the ambient environment).
Creative activity can be viewed as a method of divination. Radical Divination draws on the metaphor of augury, where the potential of future events can be interpreted from materialized forms. Using text-based prompts as evocations, the papermakers collaboratively develop artifacts for others to interpret (in this case, musicians). The words, which can be read as nouns or verbs, are intended to defamiliarize the papermaking choreography and its relationship to traditional tools and materials. After the papermakers interpret several prompts, alternating between two couching stations, the resulting collages are hung up for the musicians to divine (according to individual sets of rules).
Reflection of Infinity
Maggia Swets, Netherlands
When I absorb the sound of the forest and let my skin be caressed by the wind and my eyes be filled with the silent strength of nature, I experience resilience.
Creating the softness of a movement, a dialogue begins between the natural fibers, pigments and the artist. The thin, resilient paper retains its strength when I use a soldering iron and burn it carefully, just as nature retains its strength through the influence of rain, wind and sun. The unique burning patterns in Washi-paper offer a liberating experience, allowing me to release control and embrace the spontaneous and unpredictable outcome. Employing the burning technique creates a close connection to the subject, fostering a hands-on and immersive experience with the artistic process. By relinquishing control, I paradoxically gain command, shaping my subject directly through the dynamic process. The making of burn patterns and pushing pigments through forms becomes a fundamental canvas for my artistic creation.
Embracing this form of controlled chaos reflects the infinite expression found in nature. The enduring strengths of Washi papers’ long fibers allows it to maintain its form, making it reusable. This concept of a juice stream of trees in my art reflects the transient nature of existence and is visually represented by the flow of life sap stream within trees. A blue world where the wind whispers and breath takes you to the world of infinity.
ABOVE RIGHT: Michael Velliquette. The fullness of experience in the emptiness of awareness. Hand-constructed paper sculpture made from 280 gsm GF Smith cover stock, 2022. Photo by Jim Escalante.
The Direct Path
Michael Velliquette, USA
The Direct Path was the title of a recent exhibition featuring Michael Velliquette’s elaborate paper sculptures in what was the most comprehensive show featuring these works to date.
In using an innately delicate everyday material, Michael Velliquette’s paper sculptures convey strength, intent and durability in which temporality and perpetuity coexist. The visual experience of these works is of a sense of confident robustness, even grandiosity, yet it is underscored by the knowledge that they are lightweight and prone to damage, highlighting a unique duality. They are at once abstract layers and shapes made from colored paper, while at the same time structures that from one moment to the next suggest fortress-like constructions, tiered mandalas, or complex mechanical gears.
Velliquette challenges the unassuming nature of paper by creating pieces that appear dimensional, elaborate and timeless, yet we know the material they are made from is susceptible to exposure to moisture, sunlight, fire, or the smallest pressure or fold, and requires conscious observation and care. Cut exclusively and assembled by hand, Velliquette’s works can take hundreds of hours to complete.
In the unique labyrinth-like installation of Velliquette’s work, windows were cut into walls, giving viewers hile at the same time creating intimate spaces to welcome viewers into these intricate, structural collages.
Architect turned Artist Mpilonhle Madonsela, South Korea
Sanele Sikwana is an architecture graduate turned artist. Sanele started pursuing art at the beginning of 2023, focusing on Paper Art. When asked about her choice of material, she shared, “In university, I found joy in designing and building conceptual models and always used paper for models. I specifically enjoy using paper as my medium. It is very malleable and easy to make shapes with. My Paper Art is a translation of my architectural background in making conceptual models and shifting it into making paper artworks like sculptures, installations, lights and more.”
Sanele would describe her artwork as paper, which she uses for her art; interpretation, because she wants people to see her work in different ways unique to each person; and experience, because she wants people to experience her artwork and be intrigued by her creations.
Her life experiences and surroundings inspire her art. She sees the world as a collage of inspiration for her art and her art is an embodiment of experience. “iPepayam felt like the beginning of my art career; this is where I finally started taking my art seriously and making it a priority to explore my creativity. My vision for my future is that my art finds spaces where it is appreciated and excites people. I feel like I am still very young in my art career and there is so much I still want to explore with Paper Art and avenues; my vision for my art is exponential. I intend to enjoy making art, but I don’t know
Tanja Mojor. Mykorrhiza, www.fungi-paper.de
Ziya Tarapore. Mother Earth, 29 x 29 cm, 2023.
where it will take me. Nevertheless, being able to enjoy creating is my goal. I love every piece I make, and having opportunities to share my art would be amazing.”
Rethinking Paper: Handmade Mushroom Paper
Tanja Major, Germany
“Soft paper curves into a body, pliable and delicate. Like removed ribs, missing elements in the center let light fall in, creating a play of shadows. Tanja Major’s sculpture, titled “Bulge,” is delicately attractive and one can guess that it is made of handmade paper. However, one feature of the work cannot be as readily guessed: Tanja Major’s paper objects are made of mushrooms.”
Text by Katharina Grosch, Curator, Haus des Papiers Berlin
“Haus des Papiers has shown Tanja Major’s fascinating works since the opening of the museum in May 2021. The non-profit museum in Berlin (Germany) focuses its collection on sculptural art made of paper and shows the variety of ways in which paper can be processed, reused, or rethought. In this way, Haus des Papiers raises awareness of the oftenunderestimated material in the visual arts and among the general public. In addition, the museum offers visibility to innovations in paper materials, like that of Major’s. Her unusual approach of using fungi to produce paper requires knowledge in mycology and in the art of papermaking.
Since 2020, she has been experimenting with the fruiting bodies of various fungi species and has gradually created her so-called “Mykobüttenpapier.” She succeeded in tailoring her formulas for specific properties and significantly improved the paper quality. Tanja Major’s work seems to offer promising solutions to the increasingly pressing needs for resource-saving and ecological paper production. To produce pulp from fungi, no chemicals are needed. The material douction. To produce pulp from fungi, no es not even need to be cooked, as the artist revealed, but can be processed by merely pureeing the
fresh mushroom bodies with water. Thus, no energy- intensive pre-processing is necessary and there is no water contamination. Mushrooms, unlike trees, are also a fast-growing raw material with great potential for low-impact cultivation. Finally, fungi paper is completely compostable – a piece of nature that can become nature again.”
Excerpt from the full article in Hand Papermaking 38, no. 2 (Winter 2023); reprinted with slight edits/amendments from Hand Papermaking 38, no. 2 (Winter 2023), in May Babcock’s guest-edited issue on Ecology and Paper by permission of Hand Papermaking, Inc. © 2023, all rights reserved.
www.handpapermaking.org
Strength in Symbiosis
Ziya Tarapore, USA
Symbiosis – defined as a close, prolonged association between two or more different biological species. The story of this body of work urges living in Symbiosis, all people with kindness, true intentions and enlightenment with the planet, water, plant and animal life. There is strength in recognizing this.
Driven by a deep desire to honor the spiritual energy of an aging parent in my artwork, the idea of recycling worn cotton shirts into paper pulp and subsequent sculptural artwork inspired a new way forward for me. Layering, melding and dyeing paper to form
Viviane Colautti Ivanova. Souffle, 2023.
sculptures inspired by the rough texture of trees or gossamer petals, or the swoosh of the ocean – the spirituality and timelessness of the natural world is where my work is firmly rooted.
In carefully processing the recycled cotton fiber, wet paper, dyes and wax medium, my work seeks to reanimate the delicate conversations between the purest energies of humankind and the fragility of the planet. It presents the question: How do we protect and nurture our planet? Can we live in Symbiosis (or harmony) and peace? May the artwork serve as a reminder of our responsibility to cherish and preserve the delicate balances that sustain life.
Eternal Paper
Anne Vilsbøll, Denmark
“Eternal Paper”, curated by Helen C. Frederick, brings together 20 artists who have collaborated to create handformed art in and on paper. Their approaches range from representation to abstraction and address political, ecological and social issues. These artists honor traditions while inventing new concepts of materiality. Among the fea-
ABOVE: Sumie Matsuura. Japanese paper, silver leaf, glue, acrylic pipe and panel, red cellophane, and LED, 450 x 250 x 180 cm, 2023.
LEFT: Yasaman Moussavi. Gestures of hope, arbutus skin, 2023.
tured artists are Nicole Donnelly and Anne Vilsbøll, who are IAPMA members.
In “Eternal Paper”, 20 artists express a particular cross-fertilization engendered in studios and projects in which they have collaborated to create handformed art on paper in the spirit of experimentation. Their approaches touch on representation and abstraction, humanism and spirituality, and political, ecological and social issues. Their featured artworks span the years from 1982 to 2023.
While honoring traditions, the artists in “Eternal Paper” also invent new concepts of materiality. Our diversity of subject matter in the 21st century and the physicality involved in the projects created in hand-papermaking studios showcase the continuing expansiveness of paper. The emphasis on collaborative invention has moved imagery to fields of unique narration, expanded imaginative vocabulary and given voice to broad and visionary statements.
COLOPHON
PUBLISHER: International Association of Hand Papermakers and Paper Artists (IAPMA) e.V.
BULLETIN EDITOR: Sophie Chanyoung Kim
BULLETIN DESIGNER: Orit Mardkha-Tenzer
PRINTING AND BINDING: Jelgavas Tipografija, Latvia
PAPER: Munken Lynx 150 g/m2; 300 g/m2 by Arctic Paper
BULLETIN PRINT RUN: 800
ISSUE NUMBER: 63
PUBLICATION DATE: June 2024
COPYRIGHT © 2024 International Association of Hand Papermakers and Paper Artists (IAPMA) e.V.
ISBN 978-9934-9141-2-6
ISSN 2415-640x
IAPMA PRESIDENT
IAPMA e.V.
c/o Fides Linien
Franziska Tiburtius Strasse 4a 01326 Dresden Germany president@iapma.info
WEBSITE
For further information see: www.iapma.info
BULLETIN SUBMISSIONS IMAGE CREDITS
Unless otherwise noted, all images are reproduced courtesy of the artist.
IAPMA welcomes submissions written by or for active IAPMA members. Paper swatches are welcomed as well. Submissions are due around the beginning of December. For guidelines on how to submit, please email the Bulletin Editor at bulletn@iapma.info
BOARD MEMBERS 2024
President: Fides Linien (Germany)
Vice President: Güneş Evrim Yılmaz (Germany)
Treasurer: Eva Maria Juras (Germany)
Web-Editor: Karen Olson (USA)
Web Master: Lukas Rögner (Germany)
Newsletter Editor: Ziya Tarapore (USA)
Bulletin Editor: Sophie Chanyoung Kim (South Korea)
Bulletin Print Coordinator: Ilze Dilane (Latvia)
Exhibition Coordinator: Ângela Barbour (Brazil)
Social Media Coordinator: Jan Coveney (Australia)
Social Media Coordinator: Michelle Wilson (USA)
Archive Keeper: Heike Berl (Germany)
Member-at-large: Erika Zutere (Latvia)
IAPMA Congress 2023. Michelle Wilson and Clare Parry-Jones during a performance of Clare Pary-Jones at Pillnitz Palace.
Photo by Robert Vanis/materialmatters.online
IAPMA Congress 2023. Heike Berl and Fides Linien during the Workshop “Papermaking in the River Elbe” at Pillnitz Palace
Photo by Robert Vanis/materialmatters.online
