(non) Blank Paper Archive
This collaborative mail art project comes out of considerations of ‘Thing- Power’, a term coined by Jane Bennett as the ability of objects to act as “vivid entities not entirely reducible to the contexts in which (human) subjects set them”. The project aims to make paper, as the basis of an artwork, hold as much interest as the work itself. In recycling old print proofs, the different colours and consistencies of ink will mean that each page of the resulting paper is patterned and speckled with the history of each print.
The blended paper brings together years of mistake making and practice. The previous works, which form the basis of this now ‘blank’ paper, will be abstracted into traces of colour that transform paper into more than a new canvas, but a work in itself. In this regard, the paper is not actually blank, but a compact form of archiving.
The Process:
Post me your old proof print paper that you can’t use anymore, maximum of roughly 6 sheets of A2 paper.
I will recycle the prints I receive into ‘blank’ sheets of A5 paper.
This making process will be documented online through video and images.
I will post sheets of blank paper back to everyone to be reused, along with a monotype print I have made.
Blank paper and monotypes will be documented before posting, and shared in a future exhibition.
To be involved, please message me on Instagram @elew.is
Images courtesy of the artist.
Elizabeth Lewis
Elizabeth Lewis is a ceramicist and painter, whose work has recently engaged with the role of trans-disciplinary ceramic forms and their ability to push the limitations of materiality through composition. This has recently taken form in a series of digital collages, through which she’s able to draw from a range of art making practices. Out of this, she has formed a practice around dreamy ceramic compositions not limited by physicality. Lewis is currently undertaking her honours year in Fine Arts at UNSW Art & Design.
