Asheville-based artist Kirsten Stolle’s exhibition currently on view in the Halsey Institute’s galleries, Only You Can Prevent A Forest, brings you right into the main issues of her show with Pop Art of agrichemical companies’ products. This is similar to the work of Andy Warhol. You can learn more about his work in two books that can be found in the Halsey Institute’s reference library, From the Museum of Modern Art (shelf 26) and One Hundred American Painters(shelf 26). Other artists you may know that have followed Warhol’s style, including Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Gordy, and Howard Finster as well as Japanese artist, Keiichi Tanaami. Tanaami was recently featured in the New York Times.
In this blog post, I’d like to take a closer look at a title you can find in the library’s collection, The Paper Sculpture Book. This book shares different projects designed by artists that lead readers through building 3 dimensional pieces constructed using pages from magazines. In her various artwork series in Only You Can Prevent A Forest, Stolle uses the words from the ads of the agrichemical companies in her show.
The Paper Sculpture Book recognizes that paper is not an infinitely renewable source. Kirsten discusses similar environmental issues. In the book, the mention that Thich Nhat Han asks us to consider what the essence of paper is, trees, sunshine, earth, etc.
Paper, according to The Paper Sculpture Book, reflects the human inventions in chemistry, industry, trade, and economic development necessary for us to have paper. The book also discusses the evolution of writing and painting made possible by paper.
In the book, author Frances Richard describes, “Natural resources and mass production disappear into the paper’s apparent emptiness, an insignificance that is then filled up with individual, idiosyncratic sings.” Thus, the value of the paper may remind us of the person that added their thoughts across the ages.
You can find The Paper Sculpture Book in the reference library on shelf 54.
By Clare Meyer, Halsey Institute Librarian