The Fuller Craft Museum provides a spacious yet intimatecontext for “Pulp Function,” a survey of contemporary American art that usespaper as its primary material. Curated by Lloyd Herman, Director Emeritus ofthe Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the exhibitioncelebrates the life interests of former museum director Caroline R. Graboys,who was a certified conservator of art on paper and a museum educator. The 74artists represented here offer easily accessible work ranging from jewelry, cutpaper, and sculpture to vessels and furniture. Using machine manufacturedpapers as well as handmade, the diverse works in this exhibition utilize arange of techniques including folding, cutting, casting, weaving, stitching,and knitting. The title “Pulp Function” refers to the evolution of the craft ofpaper from the purely functional to work that, as Herman states, “have blurredthe lines between art, craft, and design.”1 David Burns’ Babymachine, includesvideo documentation of two “hired surrogates” dressed in plastic aprons andprotective eyewear, casting life-sized babies from a variety of householdingredients including shredded paper, cosmetics, liquor, flour, and spices.These two protagonists create de-gendered babies that are coated with a skin ofparaffin, dormant in a pre-born state. They sit on a bassinet stand, withothers on the floor, broken and disfigured. The paper here becomes one of theingredients that binds the mixture together yet at the same time speaks toissues of cloning, reproduction, and anonymity. A bit like Pee wee’s Playhousedropped into Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, Babymachine is an engaging satireand powerful commentary on sexual reproduction, genetics, ownership, andparental responsibility.2 Paper clothing has a long history as both a practicaland a spiritual material object in various cultures. In his classic bookPapermaking: the History and Technique of an Ancient Craft, Dard Hunter states,“During the Civil War and immediately thereafter research in wood-fibredevelopment went hand in hand with experiments in the manufacture of all mannerof articles made of paper. This was the commencement of the Paper Era. In 1853the first paper collars, cuffs, and shirt bosoms appeared in New York City…”3In China and other Asian cultures, paper clothing has been burnt and sent tothe deceased for centuries. In the United States in 1966, Scott Paper Companymanufactured disposable paper clothing as a promotion gimmick.4 Diane Savona’sTalismanic Tunic is one of several pieces of non-functional paper clothing inthe exhibition. Made of library due date cards that are stitched together in agrid, Savona gives the garment a pocket within which lies a single card printedwith the words: “In some cultures, the written word has magical power, sogarments decorated with writing will protect the wearer.” Savona’s use of cardssuggests a library full of words and possibilities. Meredith Re’ Grimsley’sLiving Out My Fantasy Panties is a love letter to her husband. Made of tracingpaper, tulle, dryer sheets, ribbon, and her sister-in-law’s wedding dress, thepanties each hang on individual coat hangers like pages of a book, and areembroidered with a single word or phrase across the front. The translucent,ephemeral quality of the paper speaks to Re’ Grimsley’s memory of childhood andgirlhood innocence, and is the basis for the letter. She uses hersister-in-law’s lace from her wedding dress to suggest in her words, “a new andadult life together supported and nurtured by family.”5 Hung high, out of theviewer’s reach, the embroidered words are almost impossible to read, suggestingthat this intimacy is reserved for her husband. The circular “ring” that theyhang on feels a bit contrived, but the intention is strong and invitesmovement. Being able to push each hanger aside to view the next “page” wouldfurther engage the viewer in this personal and intimate experience. Mia Hall isanother artist who makes a commentary on gender and marriage in her two beautifullycrafted and well-conceived pieces: Domestic Expectations—The Mother andDomestic Expectations—The Bride. The Bride is a wedding dress made from papertowels (the artist’s cleaning material of choice) and facial tissues. At firstglance, the garment seems to be made from more luxurious materials. Thecircular pattern in the bright white, quilted paper toweling is repeated in thefacial tissue flowers that cascade down the dress. Move to the back of thepiece and the dress form that the piece is hanging on has a door that opens toexpose a cabinet of cleaning supplies: spray cleaner, rubber gloves, sponges,and a duster. For The Mother, Hall stitched together white paper diapers into aChanel-inspired suit. At the rear of this garment, a cabinet door opens like ababy changing station, revealing baby powder, Vaseline, baby wipes, and apacifier. Cat Chow’s Not For Sale is a stunning floor-length designer gown madefrom one thousand shredded dollar bills. Chow asked a thousand friends,strangers, and acquaintances to each donate one dollar to the project, anddocumented their names in a notebook that she carried with her. She lists the“sponsors” on a wall behind the gown, and considers them to be as important asthe gown itself.6 Not For Sale is a beautifully articulated piece and athoughtful commentary on consumerism and the value that we place on money andstatus. There is a strong sense of hand in Donna Rhae Marder’s The Final Dress(for Jessica). Hundreds of loose thread ends activate this child-sized garmentand suggest a memory literally held together by a thread. Moving from a tightlysewn patterned paper bodice, to the dress’s skirt, the paper grid begins toopen and expose hundreds of threads that despite their fragility are holdingthe pieces together. The fullness of the form suggests a soul still alivebeneath this loving yet frantic handiwork. Cut paper has a long tradition, andLeslie A. Miller and Anna Kronick’s cut-paper pieces are outrageous in theirdetail and design. Miller’s interest in paper cutting began 26 years ago afterlooking at a book on Polish paper cutting. In Miller’s Inspiration, a red diskof kozo paper is folded and cut to create a herd of lively silhouetted horses.Their change in scale and shifting perspective and symmetry energize thissophisticated kaleidoscopic disc, and moves it beyond mere illustration. InSpill of Memory, Jeanne Jaffe’s beautifully cast paper forms are ambiguousfragments of memory. Suggesting body parts, biological structures, andarcheological fragments, these ambitious animated forms leave one trying tomake connections and build a personal narrative. Also made of cast paper isLynn Sures’ Ghirlandina, the belfry tower of the Duomo di Modena in Italy.Sures’ application of colored pulp energizes an already curious and dynamicarchitectural form that appears to be breaking away from its two-dimensionalblue plane, pushing painting into sculpture. There are some pieces in “PulpFunction” that hit the mark, and there are others that are weak stand-ins forthe diverse and innovative work being done in paper today. That said, from thedecorative to the conceptual, there is something for everyone in thisexhibition. In Herman’s words, “This survey exhibition explores creativity inpaper today across America, expressing beauty as its principal function.”7 Whenthe work is as much (if not more) about ideas as it is about its materiality,it resonates, challenging the viewer to think not just about beauty andcraftsmanship but the staying power of concept. ___________ notes 1. LloydHerman, “New Art from Paper,” essay in Pulp Function, an exhibition catalog(Brockton, MA: Fuller Craft Museum, n.d. [2007]), 7. 2. The description ispartially taken from the wall text accompanying the show at the Fuller Craft Museum.3. Dard Hunter, Papermaking: The History and Technique of an Ancient Craft, 2nded. (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1947; New York: Dover Publications, 1978), 385.4. Asheville Art Museum, “Groovy Garb: Paper Clothing from Mars ManufacturingCompany,” http://www.ashevilleart.org/index.php?option=com_events&task=view_detail&agid=245 (accessed June 14, 2007). 5. Meredith Re’Grimsley, wall text accompanying the show at the Fuller Craft Museum. 6. CatChow, wall text accompanying the show at the Fuller Craft Museum. 7. LloydHerman, 5.
pulp function Lloyd Herman, curator. With an essay “New Artfrom Paper” by Lloyd Herman, 25 pages, 10 x 9 ½ inches, 36 color plates,paperback, $10.00. Available through the Fuller Craft Museum shop, tel508.588.6000, guestservices@fullercraft.org
Diane Savona, Talismanic Tunic, 2006, 29 x 34 x 4 inches,library due date cards, cloth binding, machine sewn. All photos courtesy ofFuller Craft Museum, Brockton, Massachusetts. Cat Chow, Not For Sale, 2002, 72x 30 x 26 inches, 1,000 shredded U.S. dollar bills, fishing line, glue, dressform, list of 1,000 sponsors.
Mia Hall, Domestic Expectations–The Mother, 2005, 60 x 24 x24 inches, diapers, maple, polychromed paper, brass, found objects.
Leslie A. Miller, Inspiration, 2007, 23 ½ x 23 x 1 ½ inches,kozo paper, rag board. Donna Rhae Marder, The Final Dress (for Jessica), 2006,35 x 23 x 4 inches, sewn photographs, old buttons, various papers.
