From Sharne Wolff…
Despite their delicate appearance, the underlying natural law in the structure of Liz Shreeve’s paper sculptures makes them very robust. Their apparent fragility is partly a result of the viewer being conned by the medium, but also has much to do with light and the shadows cast on and by the sculptures’ geometric form. The artist’s overarching interest is in the representation of beauty. Here she achieves it using the humility and simplicity of paper to replicate the patterns and symmetry in nature.
Although it’s been around since antiquity, in the 60s and 70s artists began redeploying paper in experiments with familiar everyday materials. Shreeve takes her cue from both old and new traditions and in Growth and Differentiation she throws in a change of direction for her practice. From her previous wall-mounted works she has discovered a way to work with pattern and repetition to produce these freestanding sculptural pieces.
Shreeve is exhibiting three series of objects entitled The Platonics, Differentiation and Growth. The first two relate to groups of geometric solids – the ‘platonic five’ and the Archimedean, a group of thirteen including the Truncated icosahedron, or, you may be more familiar with ‘soccer ball’). The Growth series comprises four spheres with different paper cells ranging in size from 2 to 5cm, some with diameters over half a metre. Each sphere takes up to a month to construct and requires incredible dedication from the artist.
December 8, 2012
Factory 49, Marrickville.
Pic: Liz Shreeve, 5-6, 2012, torn and curled rag paper on rag paper form, 29cm diameter.
Courtesy the artist and Factory 49.
