tree torso

This is my in-class book project, thus far: It is almost done, I am just considering how to allude to the shape of a head so that it will have a more recognizably human presence. But I am very excited about the way that the pages of the book comprise this form, and all that combined language and knowledge is interwoven into its composition. This was a very intuitive process, using only wire, paper, and flour glue with a wooden base and a tree found outside to make the piece structurally sound. (also one rubberband and some normal craft glue). What was surprising is that I started out conceptually just with the desire to fashion the upper half of a human form with my hands, out of these specific materials. What I found was that by grappling in the moment with the structural difficulties of making this form stand up (having to wait for glue to dry to be able to add upper layers, the viscosity and strength of the glue versus how well it could saturate the paper, etc.) I ended up making a structure that is not solid but which alludes to a solid form; which does not replicate exactly the bone structure of a human anatomy but which alludes to it, which is not completely hollow but which shows the space both outside of the form as well as inside; and in which the tree structure serves both as support as well as an allusion to the spine of the figure, and extending from it as if a sort of impulse towards growth and expression. I am very satisfied with this form except for the desire to make it more human by the addition of a head in some sort of compatibly abstract way. So excited!!! Then all remains is to cut the excess wood on the bottom and resolve that surface as a part of the piece-- then it will be ready to be displayed in the Duderstadt Library, where we have been working on these projects!

Here are photos: