Paper Routes—Women to Watch 2020 translates paper’s materiality into commentary on hidden toil. As the curatorial project Invisible Hours asserts, time is a commodity that can be “squeezed and taken away“, and women’s private time is subsumed by “overtime work, household chores, and beauty rituals“. Paper’s dual character – as delicate, tearable sheets yet strong when assembled – becomes a potent metaphor for this paradox of fragility and resilience.
Artist Case Studies
Sa’dia Rehman, Family (2017)
Sa’dia Rehman, Family
Sa’dia Rehman uses newspaper stencils and charcoal to depict her family. The enlarged family portrait, made by smudging and cutting newsprint, evokes the “circular and violent relationships between history, memory and storytelling”. Her process of tearing and shading fragile paper speaks to the quiet persistence of labour and narrative.
Angela Glajcar，《Terforation》 (2012)
Angela Glajcar, Terforation
suspends thick cellulose sheets in the work Terforation (2012). Each large paper cube is torn through to create impenetrable chasms – a “terra incognita” of negative space. The dense paper forms are heavy and stable, yet punctured by delicate tears. These voids hint at unseen domains and underline paper’s shared fragility and strength.
Hyeyoung Shin, Tide (2019–20)
Hyeyoung Shin, Tide
Hyeyoung Shin casts women’s footsteps in translucent gampi paper (Tide, 2019–20). Over sixty paired foot moulds trace the Women’s March, their delicate surfaces preserving intimate detail. The fragile paper feet endure as collective footprints, embodying both vulnerability and determination.
Curatorial Considerations
Curatorial choices amplify these meanings. Selecting archival papers and acid-free supports, and storing works in climate-controlled cases, helps protect the works. Large installations require custom crating and careful mounting, ensuring that every crease and tear is safeguarded. In preserving these fragile traces, the curator honours the often-invisible labour behind them.
Resource:
Paper Routes—Women to Watch 2020: https://nmwa.org/whats-on/exhibitions/online/paper-routes-women-to-watch-2020/#:~:text=Shin%20uses%20Jiho,the%20largest%20iteration%20of%20this
Leave a Reply