PARTICIPATING ARTISTS Loreto Apilado and Trisha Martin, Laura Anderson Barbata, Talya Baharal, Combat Paper, Nick Dubois, Eileen Foti, Fresh Press, Julia
Goodman, Ken Gray, Sheroanawë Hakihiiwë, SOCIAL PAPER Alison Knowles, Cathy Mooses, Parents Circle— Families Forum, Peace Paper, Maggie Puckett, Hand Papermaking in the Context of Socially Engaged Art Engaged of Socially Context the in Papermaking Hand John Risseeuw, Kiff Slemmons, The People’s Library, Women’s Studio Workshop Hand Papermaking in the Context of Socially Engaged Art Socially Engaged of Context in Papermaking the Hand
Hand Papermaking in the Context of Socially Engaged Art PUBLISHED ON THE OCCASION OF Social Paper: Hand Papermaking in the Context of Socially Engaged Art February 10–April 15, 2014
CO-CURATORS Jessica Cochran, Curator of Programs and Exhibitions, Acting Assistant Director Melissa Potter, Associate Professor and Director, Book and Paper MFA Program
EXHIBITION SUPPORT Center for Book and Paper Arts Staff Steve Woodall, Director April Sheridan, Studio Technician and Special Events Coordinator Brad Freeman, Studio Coordinator and Editor, Journal of Artists’ Books Gina Ordaz, Assistant to the Director Alexis Brocchi, Amy Leners, Nagi Nakayama, and Leonardo Selvaggio, Gallery Assistants Jillian Bruschera, Graduate Curatorial Research Assistant
John Boehm and Chesley Shilling, Exhibition Photography John Risseeuw, Editorial Support Ryan Swanson, Design Consultant Aaron Ott, Exhibition Design and Curatorial Consultant Brandy Savarese, Publication Editor Stefan Coisson, Graphic Designer
PARTICIPATING ARTISTS AND ORGANIZATIONS Loreto Apilado and Trisha Martin Parents Circle - Families Forum Laura Anderson Barbata Peace Paper Project Combat Paper Maggie Puckett Nick Dubois John Risseeuw Eileen Foti Kiff Slemmons Fresh Press (University of Illinois) The People’s Library Julia Goodman Women’s Studio Workshop Taller Intensive LibroyPapel artists Art Farm: Talya Baharal, Ken Gray, Alison Knowles Cathy Mooses
ART CREDITS Cover: Siham Abu Awwad, Parents Circle-Families Forum; Back Cover: John Risseeuw, Strange Fruit, 2002; Page 2: Students in New York brush sheets of handmade iris leaf paper onto windows to dry as part of educational outreach programs administered by Dieu Donné Papermill in city schools in the 1990s (image courtesy of Dieu Donné); Page 12: Mariela Hurihiami and Cotomoto Rakanama show a hand-made notebook they made using materials for basket making, painted with drawings used in traditional body painting. Yanomami Owë Mamotima workshop, Platanal, Amazon State, Venezuela, 1995. Photo: Laura Anderson Barbata; Page 34: John Risseeuw, Bella, Bella, 2002 TABLE OF CONTENTS
3 SOCIAL PAPER IN CONTEXT: A TIMELINE 13 ESSAYS ON SOCIAL PAPER 14 INTRODUCTION TO SOCIAL PAPER Jessica Cochran & Melissa Potter
19 PULP FEMINISM: RADICAL SOCIAL HISTORIES IN HAND PAPERMAKING Melissa Potter
22 A PAPER HISTORY Gail Deery
26 THE MOBILE MILL: A TRAVELING PAPER STUDIO Jillian Bruschera
30 AMPLIFYING OBJECTS Jessica Cochran
32 TOWARD A NEW HAPPY ENDING Stuart Keeler
27 LIVE KNOWLEDGE PRODUCTION Jenni Sorkin
35 ARTISTS OF SOCIAL PAPER 69 BIBLIOGRAPHY 4
1. Exhibition view, Center for Book and Paper Arts. From left: Art Farm and the People’s Library. 2. From left: Peace Paper, Fresh Press, and Combat Paper. 3. Front to back: Kiff Slemmons, Cathy Alva Mooses, The Great Women Project. 4. Trisha Martin, Sari Sari Store, 2013, With handmade paper products from the Harding Kalikasan Women’s Multi-Purpose Cooperative. Designed 1 and fabricated with Brent Koehn. Dimensions variable. 5. The Big Here, 2014, Artist’s book and participatory installation. Thirty-five questions on handmade paper designed to test and increase viewers’ ecological awareness. Visitors were encouraged to write or draw answers directly on the installation.
2
3 5 SOCIAL PAPER In Context
2 3 1880–1950s 1960–1970s
1895–1966 1939 1955 1960 1967 1973 Roycroft Studios and Mountain Dard Hunter Paper Claire Van Vliet establishes Tamarind Lithography Work- Society of the Spectacle The Press at the Women’s House / Legacy of Dard Hunter Museum, Massachusetts Janus Press shop is founded in Los Angeles by Guy Debord / book Building Roycroft, a reformist community Institute of Technology A vehicle for innovative fine print- by June Wayne Established in Los Angeles by of craft workers and artists, and The first institution dedicated to ing, printmaking, and papermaking. Sheila De Brettville, Susan King, part of the Arts and Crafts move- the history and applications of Cynthia Marsh, and others. 1966 ment United States, is where hand papermaking. It is now locat- 1962 Walter Hamady renowned papermaker Dard Hunt- ed in Atlanta, Georgia, called the 1956 Douglass Morse Howell trained Hired at University of Wiscon- er began his career before founding Robert C. Williams Paper Museum. Kahadi and Village Industries Laurence Barker in a summer sin-Madison and begins a long 1974 his own papermills. A legacy to Commission, India apprenticeship career of teaching paper and books, Richard Minsky the practice, he authored twenty A watershed moment for cottage influencing hundreds of students Founds the Center for Book Arts in books, notably, My Life with Paper. 1946 industry development and pro- and future papermakers, bookmak- New York City. Douglass Morse Howell tection and a model for the rest ers, and printers. 1962 in New York of the developing world with Crown Point Press is founded in 1912–1950 Morse Howell built and refined incentives, including financial Oakland by Kathan Brown 1974 Ox-Bow (1912), Penland School pulp beaters, collaborating with assistance at low rate of interest, 1963–1970 Women’s Studio Workshop of Crafts (1929), and Haystack artists such as Jackson Pollock and free training and stipends to Laurence Barker Founded in Rosendale, New York, by (1950) extend the craft tradi- Lee Krasner. He notably made artists, and exemption of excise duties and sales taxes. Hand pa- Teaches papermaking at Cranbrook Tatana Kellner, Ann Kalmbach, Ani- tion of the Roycroft school. paper out of blue jeans for Robert 1962 permakers were further supported Academy of Art in Michigan in the ta Wetzel, and Barbara Leoff Burge. Rauschenburg and fostered stu- Event scores such as Make a by the government’s decision first collegiate papermill. Scores of dents, including Laurence Barker, Salad and Play Paper published to exclusively purchase certain next-generation papermakers of all who established papermaking by Alison Knowles 1916 varieties of handmade papers. sorts were trained: printers, print- in art schools and universities. 1975 Democracy and Education makers, sculptural, conceptual, and First International Hand by John Dewey / book production papermakers such as: Walter Hamady, John Koller, Win- Papermakering Conference 1963 1957 ifred Lutz, Aris Koutroulis, Roland Organized in Appleton, Wisconsin, 1947 Papermaking at the The term “Happening” coined Poska, and others. by papermaker Joe Wilfer. Douglass Morse Howell Cranbrook Academy of Art 1933–1957 by Allan Kaprow The first exhibit of paper as art First college-level papermak- Black Mountain College at the Brooklyn Public Library ing workshop, launched by in North Carolina / school in 1947. 1975–1977 Laurence Barker, fostered im- 1972 Timothy Barrett from 1959 portant artists including Wal- Paper Press founded Kalamazoo, Michigan Universal Limited Art Editions ter Hamady, Aris Koutroulis, in Evanston, Illinois Travels to Japan under a Fulbright is founded by Russian émigrés Winifred Lutz, and others. With extensive facilities, Chi- Fellowship and stays for two years Tatyana and Maurice Grossman cago’s first hand papermaking learning the methods of Japanese studio served artists from across hand papermaking by living with the region. Founded by Marilyn 1965–1966 papermaking families. His result- Sward, it later merged with Art- Claire Van Vliet ing book on the subject, Japanese ist Book Works to become the Teaches papermaking at University Papermaking, and workshops Center for Book and Paper Arts of Wisconsin-Madison on a trial become major instructional tools at Columbia College Chicago. Papermaking Socially Engaged Art Social Paper Artists basis. Recommends they establish a in conveying techniques to new teaching program. generations of papermakers. This timeline reflects curatorial research for Social Paper. It highlights critical milestones in the history of the fine art, craft, and industrial practice of hand papermaking alongside a chronology of important 1972 Womanhouse founded in moments charting the development of discourse around socially engaged art. Los Angeles
4 5 1980s 1990s
1976 1982 1986 1988 1992 1994 Dieu Donné founded Artists Book Works Hand Papermaking Magazine Duntog Foundation, Philippines Laura Anderson Barbata founds Mapping the Terrain: New in New York Founded in Chicago by Barbara Founded by Amanda Degener Artist residency program for the Yanomami Owë Mamotima Genre Public Art by Suzanne Located in the heart of Manhattan Lazarus Metz. and Michael Durgin. The first hand papermakers established. project and papermaking facility Lacy / book and serving as the field’s most publication of its kind in the field in Platanal, Venezuela direct connection to the contem- dedicated to the study and tech- porary art world, this influential nology of hand papermaking. workshop has supported hun- 1983 1989 1995 dreds of emerging artists along- Color for the Hand Papermaker John Cage 1993 Center for Book and Paper side renowned figures like Kara by Elaine Koresky / book Produces the first suite of paper- Responsive Hands Papermaking Arts founded at Columbia Walker, Jessica Stockholder, and works called “Edible Drawings.” Outreach Program and Rags to College Chicago Chuck Close, to name just a few. Papermaking Workshops Dieu Donné’s traveling paper- 1984 making program offers hands-on Joe Wilfer at Pace Editions 1990 workshops throughout New York’s 1995 in New York John Stahl founds Church of the five borrows at venues including Paper Road / Tibet Papermaker and Director of Pub- Living Tree in Leggit, California the Henry Street Settlement, the Tom Leech, Carol Brighton, Jim lications at Pace Editions collab- Along with activism and the Dalton School, PS 282 in Brooklyn, Canary, and Jane Farmer found this orates with New York artists out promotion and cultivation of Mind-Builders Creative Arts Center project of the Crossing Over Con- of the Spring Street Workshop. 1986 hemp-based paper, this papermill in the Box, and El Museo del Barrio. sortium, Inc., a non-profit organi- zation for the promotion of inter- 1981 Rutgers Center for Innovative has been involved with an effort national education and exchange Pyramid Atlantic Center for Print and Paper in New to set up a commercial-scale al- about the culture of paper, prints, the Arts founded in Baltimore Brunswick, New Jersey ternative fiber pulp mill which and book arts. The Paper Road/ Founded by friends of Dard Hunt- 1985 Now named the Brodsky Cen- will produce pulp for paper from Tibet project seeks to research the er to preserve and promote hand Minnesota Center for Book Arts ter for Print and Paper(after whole stalks of hemp, flax, ke- history of papermaking, revitalize papermaking. Established in the Warehouse founding professor Judith K. naf, wheat straw, corn stalks, District of Minneapolis. Brodsky), this visionary academic and just about anything else. the tradition of hand papermaking, institution attracts unparalleled and to encourage and introduce talent and is a major and rigorous new methods of recycling clean 1981 intellectual force in the field. wastepaper and alternative fibers. 1991 Tim Rollins and K.O.S. (Kids of 1985 Everest Environmental Project Survival) in the South Bronx, Guerrilla Girls founded in in the Fourth Paper Biennial New York New York 1986 Tom Leech, artist and paper- 1996 Timothy Barrett maker, teaches monks from the 1994 Art Farm founded at the Establishes a Papermaking Research Rongbuk Monastery to make Papermaker’s Garden at PS 234 Women’s Studio Workshop 1986 paper using waste products in New York in New York 1982 program at the University of Iowa. International Hand Papermak- found on the mountain. Impor- Dieu Donné worked with the Joseph Beuys at Documenta ing Symposium and Workshop tantly, this project was identi- children and teachers at PS 234 to (7), The End of the Twentieth Duntog Papermill, Baguio City, fied by curator Jane Farmer for create a papermaking garden and Century Philippines. 1987–1989 inclusion in the Fourth Paper facility in order to use papermaking Democracy by Group Material Biennial at the Leopold Hoesch as an interdisciplinary education- at the DIA Art Foundation, Museum in Duren, Germany. al tool by linking it to current New York / exhibition art, science, and social studies curriculum with an emphasis placed on process and dialogue.
6 7 2000s
1996 1998 2000 2004 2006 2007 “Art of the Matter” Papermaking Euraba Paper Company Kiff Slemmons begins One Place after Another: Site-Spe- Massive Change: The Future First annual Open Engagement Collaborations Symposium in Boggabilla, Australia work at Arte Papel Workshop cific Art and Locational Identity of Global Design at the Museum Conference in Regina, Saskatch- The Cooper Union School, Paul West founded the Euraba Paper in Oaxaca, Mexico by Miwon Kwon / book of Contemporary Art, Chicago / ewan, Canada. Organized by Jen New York City Company (euraba meaning “place of exhibition de los Reyes Sponsored by the Dieu Donné healing” in the Goomeroi language), Papermill in connection with the initially bringing to Boggabilla 1996 Friends of Dard Hunter pa- weavers for an arts residency, which 2001–2004 2004 2006 permakers’ conference, “Art of the resulted in experiments in hand The Paper Landmine Print Project Conversation Pieces: Community 2008 Gift of the Conquerors: Matter” exhibition opens at Great papermaking using local grasses and is founded by John Risseeuw and Communication in Modern Art Holland Paper Biennial / Hand Papermaking in India by Hall Gallery, The Cooper Union, reeds. Now the Goomeroi women by Grant Kester / book exhibition Alexandra Soteriou / book New York, New York, and travels source off-cut rags from manufac- through 1996, into 1997. The first turers. They were awarded a NSW 2001 Holland Paper Biennial is held in Indigenous Art Prize and were in- Women on Waves 2004 2009 Rijswijk, Netherlands. cluded in the 2012 Sydney Biennial Establishes medical services at sea. From Seed to Sheet at the 2006 Slash: Paper under the Knife for their collaboration with Ber- Women’s Studio Workshop Politics on Paper — Global at the Museum of Arts and lin-based artist Monika Grzymala. A traveling exhibition of paper Tragedies/Personal Perils Design / exhibition Columbia College Chicago Center 1997 work by Alison Knowles, Talya 2002 for Book and Paper, Chicago, Illinois. Papermaking with Plants Baharal, and Ken Gray creat- American Papermakers Today by Helen Hiebert / book 1998 ed through experimentation Columbia College Chicago Center 2009 Project Row Houses in Houston with Art Farm garden fibers. for Book and Paper, Chicago, Illinois. Timothy Barrett wins a by Rick Lowe 2007 MacArthur Genius Grant An important model for artist- A Ripple in the Water 1997 Elevating his work on the his- driven urban planning and an by Eileen Foti Cabuya Paper Workshop 2005 tory, technique, science, and important step in the emergence 2002 Documentary on artist Kim in Ecuador Paper Politics: Socially Engaged aesthetics of hand papermak- of social practice as a medium Culture in Action in Chicago Berman and papermaking proj- Gail Deery and Mina Takahashi Printmaking Today / exhibition ing, Barrett publishes Japanese for art and civic applications. Curated by Mary Jane Jacob, this ects used for poverty alleviation initiate a papermaking project with Papermaking, with an appendix new approach to public art as social and AIDs awareness in South Cabuya farming communities in the co-authored by Winifred Lutz. sculpture an “important salvo in the Africa. It has since screened biosensitive cloud-rainforest region. battle to bring socially cooperative 2005 across the world and on PBS. 1998–2002 art into mainstream art venues.” Social Practice degree Relational Aesthetics concentration at California 2009 by Nicolas Bourriaud / book College of the Arts Experiments at Cochin 2007 Widely identified as the first pro- University of Science and Tech- The Combat Paper Project 2004 gram of its kind established in the nology in Kerala, South India Innovative Printmaking on in Chicago and beyond 1999 United States. Many followed suit, American papermaker Dorothy Handmade Paper: A Juried Founded by artist Drew Matott Paper Art Village Project notably the Social Practice pro- Field works with students and Exhibition of 20 Artists and soldier-turned-artist Drew in Mino City, Japan gram at Portland State University. faculty applying scientific ap- Opens at the American Museum Cameron, this nonprofit organiza- To develop cross-cultural rela- proaches to create financially viable of Papermaking at Georgia Tech, tion conducts workshops around tionships, Japan invites six art- alternative papers from local fibers Georgia Tech Institute of Paper Sci- the country teaching military ists, including Jane Ingram Allen that would otherwise go to waste. ence and Technology, Atlanta, GA. 2005 veterans how to make paper from who documented her experience South India historically lacks a Beyond Green: Toward a their old uniforms by hand. in hand papermaking, to make hand papermaking tradition. Sustainable Art at the Smart art with Mino City’s renowned Museum, University of kozo fiber handmade paper. 2004 Chicago / exhibition Born into Brothels / documentary film
8 9 2010s
2009 2011 2011 2012 2013 2014 Among Tender Roots: Laura Immigrant Movement Fresh Press, University of Illinois Jane Addams Hull House Asso- Papermaker’s Garden at Social Paper: Hand Anderson Barbata at Center for International initiated by Tania An agri-fiber and agri-fiber waste ciation closes in Chicago after Columbia College Chicago Papermaking in the Context Book and Paper Arts / exhibition Bruguera in New York papermaking lab that explores 122 years of social service; Jane A new garden to support deep of Socially Engaged Art how a collaboration of farmers, Addams Hull House Museum, hands-on engagement with Center for Book and Paper artists, designers, and academics unaffiliated, remains open. the process of fiber production Arts / exhibition can revitalize a slowly dying manu- as well as contemporary ideas Curated by Jessica Cochran and 2009 facturing industry in the Midwest. in interdisciplinary practice Melissa Potter 2011–2012 First annual Creative Time related to art, science, the envi- Living as Form: Socially Summit in New York 2012 ronment, and social practice. Engaged Art from 1991–2012 Sheroanawë Hakihiiwë wins by Nato Thompson / book 2011 the Bienal Continental de Artes 2014 Artificial Hells: Participatory Art Cathy Mooses in residence at Indigenas Contemporañeas for a A Proximity of Consciousness: Art 2010 and the Politics of Spectatorship the Center for Book and Paper paper installation created at the 2013 and Social Action at the Sullivan The Paper Landmine Print Project by Claire Bishop / book Arts and Arts and Public Life at Center for Book and Paper Arts. Service Media: Is it “Public Art” Galleries, School of the Art Insti- Featuring the work of John the University of Chicago The project is part of the artist’s or “Art in Public Space” by Stuart tute of Chicago / exhibition Risseeuw in the People to People The One and the Many: Develop work out of research collaborative work to preserve the Keeler / book Curated by Mary Jane Jacob International Symposium on Peace Contemporary Collaborative on amate papermaking tradi- Yanomami culture through collab- and Kate Zeller and Conflict, 19th Worldwide Art in a Global Context by tions amongst contemporary orative book and paper projects. Conference, Scottsdale, Arizona. Grant Kester / book Otomí communities in Mexico. 2013 The People’s Library 2013 Awarded a VCU Undergraduate 2010 2011 2011 A Homecoming for Julia by Research Grant to implement Total Ocean Recall by Maggie A Blade of Grass founded Balikbayan Box by Trisha Martin Laura Anderson Barbata in Oslo, weekly papermaking workshops Puckett at Version Fest, Chicago in New York / grant in Real Quezon, Philippines Norway and Sinaloa, Mexico at the Richmond Public Library. Trisha Martin travels to the Philip- With a performance and buri- pines to work with Loreto Apilado al ceremony, Laura Anderson and Hardin Ng Kalikasan (of Na- Barbata officially repatriates 2010 2011 ture’s Garden), a micro industry the body of Mexican national 2014 Fabric of War workshops by Nick Peace Paper initiative for paper and handmade Julia Pastrana to her home. RISK: Empathy, Art and Dubois in the Ramat Gan, Israel, Founded by Drew Matott and arts and crafts under the auspices of Social Practice Columbia College and exhibition in London Margaret Mahan, Peace Paper the Great Women Project (GWP). Chicago / exhibition Fabric of War workshops organ- empowers bereaved communities Curated by Neysa Page-Lieberman ised by Nick Dubois with the around the globe by engaging and Amy Mooney Parents Circle-Families Forum in in collaborative art processes to Israel, and exhibition in London. transforming significant articles 2012 of clothing into works of art that Julia Goodman in residence broadcast personal stories, mutual at Recology, San Franscisco understanding, and healing. In a residency at Recology, a recycle and waste transfer cen- ter, Goodman explores gender and the history of rag sorting in relation to paper production.
10 11 Essays on SOCIAL PAPER Introduction to Social Paper JESSICA COCHRAN & MELISSA POTTER
Socially engaged art occupies the forefront arts-driven micro-industry, or discursive art groups like the Stockyard Institute, People past twenty years have formed community of today’s contemporary art discourse, and objects that are the outcomes of research or Powered, and Mess Hall. gardens, collaborated with governments and Chicago is at the center of the discussion.1 activism. With this exhibition, it is our goal Now, decades after Addams, the cen- NGOs on cottage industry projects, explored Social Paper explores hand papermaking as a to reveal the “work” of this work: that deep turies-old process of hand papermaking participatory pedagogy through workshops, medium that exemplifies many of the char- engagements with culture, history, and the has developed into a dynamic artistic created community libraries and trans-disci- acteristics of socially engaged art. The ex- natural environment are brought to into the field, energized in part by a broad public plinary hubs for research, and raised aware- hibition was produced at Columbia College realm of the social through participation, interest in craft arts, as characterized by ness about the disastrous effects of war and Chicago’s Center for Book and Paper Arts, interaction, and field research. the American Studio Craft movement and, environmental apathy. which was founded in 1992 to advance the Hand papermaking is a naturally col- more recently, the DIY craft movement. To us, the urgency of this project is clear. craft discourse in book and paper. laborative process, and within the explor- In the 1960s and 1970s, American hand pa- We must assert the importance of hand pa- According to its proponents, socially atory realm of the studio it can be as exper- permaking underwent a revival fueled by its permaking projects in the context of so- engaged art—also called social practice— imental as it is pedagogical, as artists gather survival in academic art departments, such cially engaged art. We must also establish purposely blurs the lines between politics, and share knowledge about specific fibers, as Cranbrook’s; by the founding of arts or- a new dialogue highlighting the significant community organizing and art, and often new techniques, or alternative processes. ganizations, such as Dieu Donné Papermill and unregistered social contributions of the takes the forms of direct audience engage- As such, many hand papermaking projects and the Women’s Studio Workshop in New papermaking movement that have been ment, workshops, and public interventions. privilege community, collaboration, partic- York; and by a wave of newer hubs, such as omitted from recent signs of interest in the In the process, socially engaged art asks: ipation, student knowledge, and empower- Columbia College Chicago and Pyramid politics and social histories of craft. Because What is the role of art today? This important ment over a hierarchical student/teacher Atlantic in Baltimore. Social Paper explores hand papermaking as a question is central to discussions in grad- dynamic or artistic product. Its legacy stems To non-practitioners, hand papermak- socially engaged art within significant con- uate art departments like our own at Co- from the industrial revolution, which ren- ing is still usually associated with fine press temporary discourse and definitions, many lumbia College Chicago, especially in the dered many craft arts like hand papermak- book traditions and studio craft practices. of the major scholarly models for identify- current global environment of continuing ing obsolete to the communities in which However, papermaking experts Gail Deery ing and evaluating socially engaged projects economic crises. it once was essential. A renewed interest and Mina Takahashi take a broader view. proved helpful in researching and mounting Our goal at the Center for Book and Paper in local economies and the handmade was Writing in the Winter 1999 issue of Hand Pa- the exhibition. Arts is to place the multi-dimensional prac- a response to the events of the early twen- permaking, they declared: “An ever-growing Major theoretical models, which chal- tices of hand-papermakers within broader tieth century, and led to the reformist number of projects worldwide now utilize lenge the fields of hand papermaking as theoretical, practical, historical, sociological, communities of craft workers assembled hand papermaking as a tool for economic de- well as contemporary art, provide a rigor- and disciplinary contexts relative to contem- as part of the Arts and Crafts movement. velopment.” From Aboriginal communities ous framework for considering the artworks porary art. It has been especially exciting The legacy of Jane Addams’ Hull House in Australia to the Venezuelan rainforest, in Social Paper. The exhibition asks paper to situate hand papermaking in many of has also profoundly affected the rise of social artists are using the social, economic and artists to consider the medium within an the key debates in social practice as estab- practice. Hull House, a settlement home cultural aspects of hand papermaking to art context, something sorely lacking in lished by major proponents of the move- founded in 1889, was part of a broad pro- engage communities in meaningful, often the field since its rise in the 1970s. At the ment. Social Paper demonstrates, through gressive movement that offered social ser- transformative, activities. same time, Social Paper asks what hand pa- the lens of social engagement, how the prac- vices to low-income urban dwellers through permaking project models might offer the tice of hand papermaking can engage many democratized access to education, health PAPERMAKING’S PROGRESS larger discussion about socially engaged art of social practice’s strategies of activism and care, and social interaction. Addams believed To build on its legacy and articulate our and, by extension, why there has as yet been community interaction. Together, the sculp- handicrafts and fine art were essential to a vision of the future of paper as a meaning- little discourse on this intersection. tures, installations, prints, documentaries, healthy community, and necessary aspects ful art medium, we must consider the art Since the early 1990s, a renewed focus on artists’ books, and ephemera articulate how of Hull House’s services. This framework for and practice of making paper today in rela- the intersection of art and social change em- the labor of papermaking is malleable and engaged art practices has gained currency tion to trends in contemporary art—specif- phasized artists operating within a neo-ma- beautifully porous when generatively trans- in the art world over the past decade, par- ically, trends in socially engaged art. Social trix of philosophical and ideological legacies formed into healing workshops, models for ticularly in Chicago where it is embodied in Paper features papermakers who for the from Joseph Beuys to Guy Debord. This is in
14 ABOVE: Art Farm, Women’s Studio Workshop (Kingston, New York). BELOW: Papermaker’s Garden, Columbia College Chicago, 2013. 15 part due to the collapse of the largely com- include Pablo Helguera’s “transpedagogy” of such practices is grounded in a twofold Once made, a participant’s paper modity-driven art market of the 1980s, a and Stuart Keeler’s “service media.” Fin- critique. She argues for the urgent need becomes the foundation for expressive period that included a rising market for high- kelpearl prefers “social cooperation” over to rigorously analyze such work “as art” content—that is, for telling his or her story end crafts, which were still then considered Bishop’s “social collaboration.” At the end while also warning that such practices in the form of hand-drawn images, texts, separate from the fine art world. of the day, the art world seems to have most often serve to feebly replace disappear- photographs, and/or prints. Kester would At the time, the absence of a flourishing enthusiastically embraced Nato Thompson’s ing social services as the welfare state approve, as he considers the craft workshop object-oriented marketplace—combined “socially engaged art.”3 disappears through neo-liberal policies. model generative and ripe with possibil- with timely social issues such as the en- Helguera asserts that socially engaged Artworks should not be reduced to their ities. “Craft knowledge is discursive and vironment, the AIDs crisis, and the eco- art (SEA) is at its root “a hybrid, multi-dis- ethical impact. transmissible,” he writes in The One and nomic and social problems of globaliza- ciplinary activity that exists somewhere Grant Kester is perhaps Bishop’s primary the Many: Contemporary Collaborative Art tion—created space for artists to reorient between art and non-art, and its state may antagonist in the field. He holds that “the in a Global Context. “It is a skill that can be their artwork and object-making toward be permanently unresolved. SEA depends dialogical projects . . . present a mode of col- taught and passed on, and in doing so it pro- Pastrana her dignity and her rightful place engaged art defies “discursive boundaries, activism and radical change on a global on actual—not imagined or hypothet- laborative art practice in which the tension vides a platform for shared labor that can be in history and the collective memory. In its very flexible nature reflects an interest scale. Social Paper is the first exhibition to ical—social action.”4 Decades before the between semantic and symbolic labor is used to mobilize new relationships.”7 Hand February 2013, after ten years of Barbata’s in producing affects in the world rather than chart hand papermaking’s relationship to current trend of using gardens as sites for not collapsed per se but openly thema- papermaking is a tremendously simple skill efforts, Julia Pastrana’s remains were repa- focusing on the form itself.”8 socially engaged art, and the first to demon- the creative intersection of growing, food tized and made an explicit object of inquiry to learn in a short time. As a result, it offers triated and, as she had been Catholic, given Several projects in Social Paper embody strate how hand papermaking revived in education, culinary activity, and artistic and creative engagement . . . in which the profound possibilities for creating these a proper Catholic burial in Sinaloa. Thompson’s interest in activism, participa- tandem with these important, well-ar- engagement, Dieu Donné Papermill and linkage between creativity and a certain kinds of relationships. Barbata’s role in burying Pastrana’s tion and the intersection of art and public chived movements. the Women’s Studio Workshop program form of singularized aggression and self remains represented more than a religious life through the production of alternatives Over the past two decades, a vast out- both developed interdisciplinary gardens to assertion is de-naturalized.”6 Bishop and MEXICAN HOMECOMING ceremony. Her project was an event that that demonstrate a DIY ethos. Maggie Puck- pouring of books, articles and essays about teach the art of hand papermaking through Kester manifest one of the primary strug- Other artists in Social Paper invoke Kester’s encompassed art, memory, politics, science, ett’s installation, The Big Here: Chicago, is community-oriented, site-specific, partic- environmental engagement. gles in many of the works featured in Social concepts on modernity and industrialization, justice, the law and, most important, human a set of thirty-five questions designed to ipatory, and public-driven art, has yielded Because their projects focused on more Paper—the line between artistic excel- which he claims negatively impact indige- dignity. Pastrana was buried with handmade test and importantly increase ecological several major positions and a critical vocab- than the end product, they live in the space lence and social impact. nous and diverse local cultures, and have artworks Anderson Barbata created with awareness based on a concept by naturalist ulary defining what has come to be known that Helguera describes by extending artis- The work of several of the projects rep- evolved art into a tool for interpreting our graduate students in the Columbia College Peter Warshall. The questions appear on as social practice. These concepts, often tic definitions to education, collaboration, resented in Social Paper exploit Bishop’s humanity. In light of this attitude, let us Chicago papermaking studio, along with handmade papers selected to emphasize unaligned or in opposition, are loosely an- community building, and interdisciplin- and Kester’s opposition. Combat Paper, for consider Laura Anderson Barbata’s A Home- thousands of white flowers sent from around each question’s content. Visitors to the in- chored by Suzanne Lacy’s introduction in ary practice. Today, Fresh Press continues example, brings the practice of hand paper- coming for Julia. Barbata’s project culminated the world. The project continues with an in- stallation are encouraged to write and draw 1995 of the term “new genre public art,” this legacy at the University of Illinois in making into the workshop format, using in the repatriation to Mexico of the mortal teractive workshop exploring the language, answers to the questions directly on the which was followed by Nicolas Bourriaud’s Champaign-Urbana by taking advantage of it as a means to provide healing and social remains of Mexican-born performer Julia both in historic and contemporary contexts, handmade paper. Relational Aesthetics, first published in 1998 agricultural waste from the school’s many change. Combat Paper was started by Drew Pastrana from the basement collection of used to describe Pastrana, with the results After the exhibition, the sheets were and translated into English in 2002. research crops to create paper in an inter- Cameron and Drew Matott, a 2007 graduate the University of Oslo, in Norway. to be displayed in Columbia College Chica- folded into folios and bound into a codex disciplinary studio and press. of Columbia College Chicago’s Book and Born in 1834 in Sinaloa, Pastrana was go’s Papermaker’s Garden. book representing the collective awareness TERMS OF ENGAGEMENT In Artificial Hells, one of the most im- Paper program. The project invited mili- sold and exhibited across Europe as “The The idea that an artist might be more of the installation’s participants. With an Tom Finkelpearl points out in What We Made portant current texts on socially engaged tary veterans to use their worn service uni- Ugliest Woman in the World.” Afflicted with interested in the production of “affect,” or a emphasis on direct participation and the as- that writer and scholar Claire Bishop’s list art, Claire Bishop observes that “partici- forms to create works of art. The uniforms generalized hypertrichosis lanuginosa and zone of meaningful relations, than a perfect- sertion of a collective knowledge, Puckett’s of widely used descriptors for social prac- patory projects in the social field seem to were cut up, beaten into pulp, and reformed gingival hyperplasia, Pastrana’s jaw was ly realized aesthetic form or object seems project places authorship in the hands of par- tice includes “socially engaged art, com- operate with a twofold gesture of opposi- into sheets of paper. “Participants use the disproportionately large and her face and antithetical to the objective of most paper ticipants. The final book, though bound by munity-based art, experimental communi- tion and amelioration. They work against transformative process of papermaking,” body were covered with thick hair. Barbata artists, who are often identified as highly Puckett herself, was collectively authored ties, dialogic art, littoral art, participatory, dominant market imperatives by diffusing Combat Paper declares, “to reclaim their felt it was her duty as an artist working in skilled craft people, fetishists of tooth, as the result of a highly orchestrated, art- interventionist, research-based, or collab- single authorship into collaborative ac- uniforms as art and express their experi- the social realm to see Pastrana returned surface, and pigment. In his book Living as ist-led scenario characteristic of socially orative art.”2 Other popular descriptors tivities.”5 Bishop’s hesitant endorsement ences with the military.” to Mexico. She felt this would recover for Form, Nato Thompson asserts that socially engaged art.
ABOVE: Dieu Donné Papermaker’s Garden at P.S. 234 on Chambers & Greenwich Streets, Manhattan. 16 Students grow corn, iris, gladiolus, flax, and yucca, and process the plant fiber to make sheets of handmade paper (1993). 17 Pulp Feminism Radical Social Histories in Hand Papermaking BY MELISSA POTTER
Artists Courtney Bowles and Mark an “institution,” an artist working within 2. Tom Finkelpearl. What We Made: Conversations on For decades, I have been making art at the Marilyn Sward, founder of the Center for successful business—which it did, employ- Strandquist conduct a similar process for his or her own community, and work that Art and Social Cooperation (Durham: Duke Univer- strange intersection of feminism and hand Book and Paper, embraced the transforma- ing six full-time artisans. The program also sity Press, 2013: 5). The People’s Library’s project in Richmond, creates a commentary on a specific time by 3. Meanwhile, even more terms fluidly infiltrate the papermaking. Neither intersection did much tive nature of handcraft labor in a collabo- differentiated between “workers” and “ar- Virginia. They facilitate DIY papermaking addressing an issue with a “service” engaged lexicon through various forms of discourse and mar- for my career during the new millennium rative studio environment. tisans,” infusing project goals with creative workshops that pulp de-accessioned library dialogical approach. keting, for example, “Open Engagement,” meaning in New York—earnest was out, hipster cyni- The Center flowed from the craft tradi- potential. It accepted women on their terms, a conference; “Social Practice,” indicating MFA pro- books into new blank books that circulate Keeler presented his concept for building grams, most notably at Portland State University and cism was in. Hand papermaking, stepchild of tion of Chicago’s settlement houses; in par- which included drug addiction, long-term within the library. Community residents are a new discourse about the interaction of so- California College of the Arts; and “Public Engage- the stepchild (printmaking) of the art world, ticular, the Hull House bindery where Ellen poverty, and mental health issues.3 urged to check out the blank books, fill them cially engaged art and hand papermaking at ment,” the title of a new department at the Hammer was only acceptable in the gallery context Gates Starr explored the way hand labor WomanCraft’s founders, trained as both Museum. There is even a curator of “Public Practice” with their own histories, and return them the 2014 College Art Association panel titled at the Walker Art Center. and even then, hardly ever considered for could help workers overcome the alien- artists and workers, were interested in the to the library for circulation. The result is Social Paper, From Paper to Practice: Tactics 4. Pablo Helguera, Education for Socially Engaged Art major exhibitions. ation of mechanized labor.1 One initiative “dynamic tension” between materials and that the library becomes designed, filled, and and Publics in Socially Engaged Art. Fellow (New York: Jorge Pinto Books, 2011), pablohelguera. Often described as a “feminine” medium, that especially exemplified this perspec- labor. The primary material they used for net/2011/11/education-for-sociall-engaged-art-2011/ authored by community members, generat- panelists included socially engaged artists (accessed on January 8, 2014). hand papermaking indeed attracts many tive was WomanCraft, a Chicago-based pulp was waste paper. The project leaders ing a continuing exchange of local histories. Laura Anderson Barbata and Claire Pentecost. 5. Claire Bishop, Artificial Hells: Participatory Art and women practitioners. In fact, the art of hand micro-industry program that offered transi- saw a connection between waste paper that Bowles and Strandquist hope the books For decades, hand papermaking has been the Politics of Spectatorship (London: Verso, 2012: 19). papermaking shares the ethos of the early tional employment through an artisan-run could be reused for art and the homeless 6. Grant Kester. The One and the Many: Contemporary constitute “a thousand micro-monuments” largely excluded from contemporary artistic Collaborative Art in a Global Context (Durham: Duke feminist art movement and socially engaged hand papermaking business. Nancy Phillips, WomanCraft artisans who, despite being that become “the real and symbolic meeting discourse and has survived as a small, some- University Press, 2011: 21). art with its emphasis on collaboration, hand WomanCraft’s founding Director, studied social outcasts, worked on their own terms place for alienated publics,” while offering what exclusive, self-sustaining community. 7. Kester: 91. labor, and process over product. And just with Marilyn Sward, and realized through regardless of their employment and person- 8. Nato Thompson, Living as Form: Socially Engaged Art “sustainable, collective and critical alterna- Though the movement has not benefited From 1991–2011 (New York: Creative Time Books, like early feminist art, these characteristics this experience that hand papermaking al challenges. tives for the form and function of public art.” from inclusion, the artists represented in 2012: 32). are some of the reasons hand papermaking was an excellent medium for the Woman- Brides-to-be, among WomanCraft’s The project reflects the needs and desires Social Paper clearly articulate their signifi- 9. Thompson: 19. remains in art history’s margins. Craft social enterprise. Despite Woman- clients, collaborated directly with its arti- of local residents, and re-interprets one cant commitment to social change through Although recently renewed interest Craft’s more than thirteen years of success, sans on their wedding invitations. In fact, particular public institution as a space for the medium of hand papermaking while in feminism sparked important historical Hand Papermaking magazine considered the the program enjoyed considerable success production, meditation, and alternative navigating multiple art “worlds” with great surveys, films and the cataloging of the pub- project’s impact in only one review.2 And as a forerunner of the eco-wedding move- education. Bowles and Strandquist say they success. Their projects are not only outstand- lications of the Heresies Collective (to which Chicago artists and critics have generated ment. In 2009, it even won Chicago’s presti- are frequently asked by others for help in ing applications of papermaking, they enact Riot Grrls and artist book makers owe a huge no other significant discourse. I was gen- gious Greenworks Award. The project shared setting up their own People’s Libraries. As and embody the complexity and reflexive debt), we are only beginning to consider uinely surprised that WomanCraft, which many of the tenets of early feminist social such, the project moves beyond being a dimensionality that characterizes contem- much undocumented and unreviewed ma- fits so many of the criteria for socially practice, especially the ideas that art, work, symbolic, local gesture and into the ter- porary art. terial. It is exciting, but daunting. And sad: engaged art, had never entered the social and life are inextricably bound together and ritory of having real, dimensional impact Today, the MFA in Book and Paper grad- as I learned at Rutgers University, early in practice conversation. that labor and power can be redefined as a beyond the usual sphere of visual art. As uate students, whose studios are just steps my feminist career, neglected archives are The WomanCraft program operated transformational endeavor. Coupled with Nato Thompson writes, “cultural practices from the galleries that house Social Paper, often lost forever. This past spring, my ex- from 1998 to 2011, and lived both its ideals human service goals, these ideas helped indicate a new social order—ways of life that are extending this discussion in their work, perience co-curating Social Paper: Hand Pa- and its contradictions. It served as an em- WomanCraft evolve over more than a decade emphasize participation, challenge power, populating the field with rigorous new ap- permaking in the Context of Socially Engaged ployment program for homeless women, a during one of the stormiest economic crises and span disciplines.”9 proaches, and questioning the value of art in Art recalled many of the same challenges. socially engaged art project, and a partici- in U.S. history. Canada-based curator Stuart Keeler a globalized society in great need of evolved I am a graduate program professor of pant in such civil disobedience actions as As I began to dig into the Chicago art provides another model that has proved cultural discussions and interactions. hand papermaking at Columbia College the 1970 Miss America protest and Mierle world for material about WomanCraft and very helpful in assessing paper projects Chicago’s Center for Book and Paper. As Laderman’s Ukeles manifestos about “main- similar projects, I quickly re-discovered the
as socially engaged. In Service Media, he 1. Other major exhibitions include Neysa Paige-Lieber- such, I began to contextualize the radical tenance art.” WomanCraft was founded frustrations of my early years in New York, suggests that the five main criteria for a man and Amy Mooney’s RISK: Empathy, Art and Social culture of hand papermaking in a course on the principles that hand papermaking over the lack of feminist discourse in Chicago. service media work are: a non site-specific Practice, which features all Chicago-based artists, at called History of Paper. I was also interest- is relatively easy to learn yet challenging Although heavily invested in social practice Columbia College and A Lived Practice organized by approach, the use of a public realm or city Mary Jane Jacob for the School of the Art Institute ed in connecting papermaking to Chicago’s enough to keep its practitioners engaged discourse, Chicago, I came to understand, as a studio, artists situating themselves as of Chicago. socially engaged art scene, especially since and inspired, and that it could evolve into a is not particularly invested in a feminist
18 19 discourse. It isn’t for lack of feminist activi- Kiff Slemmons designs and creates high- ty: In 1969, the Chicago Women’s Liberation end jewelry with a group of women arti- Union joined the national feminist move- sans in Oaxaca, Mexico, using handmade ment through consciousness raising, street paper produced at an atelier. It, too, offers actions, and programs to promote equali- income-generating opportunities through ty. In 1970, the Chicago Women’s Graphics artistic expression. Eileen Foti’s documenta- Collective became the artistic interface for ry, A Ripple in the Water: Healing Through Art, the Union’s silk-screened political posters. features the visionary Kim Berman and her Artemisia Gallery, a Chicago feminist art Artists Proof Studio, a South African print collaborative, was founded in 1973. Sister and paper collaborative for people touched organizations include the A.I.R. Gallery in by the HIV/AIDS epidemic. New York City, Chicago’s Sapphire and Crys- Feminist and activist tenets are also tals collective for African American women evident in the work of featured artist Laura the late 1990s, as a graduate MFA student status quo interprets as “not art.” Such prac- artists, and Chicago’s AfriCOBRA collective Anderson Barbata’s A Homecoming for Julia. at Rutgers University, I collaborated with tices provide powerful alternatives to our for African-American artists. The work recounts Barbata’s journey to bring Laura Cottingham, a feminist art critic and evolving art landscape and a society that The legacy continued through the dignity to a Mexican national through the historian, while she was curating her exhi- now more than ever needs to rethink its decades with organizations like the Wom- repatriation of her body. Julia Pastrana was bition, Not For Sale: Feminism and Art in the values and approaches to culture. anMade Gallery; yet, there has never been exhibited internationally as “the ugliest USA During the 1970s. Through its feminist and socially a major museum survey of this work, even woman in the world,” due to hypertricho- It was a formidable challenge. It was not engaged incarnations, hand papermaking after “The Year of Feminism” buzz around sis. She died in Norway, where her remains just contextualizing the work to suggest it challenges the paradigm of art as commerce the 2007 WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolu- continued to be displayed, until, ultimate- is the primary movement defining contem- and power, and offers a new vision of in- tion exhibition. Although Suzanne Lacy, one ly, they and the remains of her dead infant porary art, but also a preservation project. dividual experience, a space for collective of the most important feminist performance were dismembered and stored in a basement. I had the great privilege of watching some memory and alternatives to prevailing his- artists, came to Chicago to create Full Circle Columbia College Chicago graduate stu- of the most compelling video projects in tories. The Social Paper exhibition offers us for the groundbreaking exhibition Culture in dents attending Language + Labor, an inter- graduate school, which I can regrettably no the opportunity to claim new histories as Action, feminism was not broadly contextual- active hand papermaking workshop held in longer source. Some of the films have been our own and carve out a rightful place in ized as a major precursor to socially engaged conjunction with the Social Paper exhibition, digitized, but Cottingham reminded us we the socially engaged art movement. As the art. This is puzzling, especially considering also explored Pastrana’s legacy, especially were seeing only a fraction of this work. It is feminist movement reminds us, we only art historian Jenni Sorkin’s thoughts in her operated contemporaneously with other exhibition reveal interesting parallels to the ways in which language can shape and still languishing—moldy, neglected, locked have half the story. WACK! catalog essay: hand papermaking micro-industry ini- WomanCraft and share the idea of collec- transform cultural biases. The workshop’s in a barn in upstate New York. At no other time during the 20th Century tiatives that embraced the same feminist tive action as an artistic process. Trisha works were installed in Columbia College Looking back, I realize Cottingham was 1. “Art at Hull House, 1889-1901: Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr.” Stankiewicz, Mary Ann. Woman’s Art were the terms of engagement so differ- and social practice goals and values. In a Martin and Loreto Apilado’s program, The Chicago’s Papermaker’s Garden. a huge, even perhaps primary reason the Journal, Vol. 10, No. 1 (Spring – Summer 1989): 37. entiated from traditional definitions of response to exclusionary practices of the art Great Women Project, helps underemployed While recognizing that the current rise interest in feminism peaked in 2007 with 2. Martinson, K. “Womancraft Papers.” Hand Paper- artistic success. In its diversity of pockets, world, feminists’ art sought to redefine ar- women in a rural region of the Philippines in social practice discourse helps us identify the WACK! exhibition. The Social Paper ex- making. 15 (2000): 8-12. 3. Phillips, Nancy. Personally conducted interview groups and open circuits, feminist collectiv- tistic practice through a radical rethinking create handmade paper for sale to profit their and record important cultural contributors hibition is a modest beginning to what we at Heartland Alliance, Chicago, IL. April 24, 2014. ity carried with it a poignant declaration of collective vision and art objects. community. Martin worked with the project like WomanCraft, the failure to acknowl- hope is an investment in the radical history 4. Sorkin, Jenni; Butler, Cornelia H., and Mark, Lisa G. of resistance, allowing the fleeting aura of Consciousness raising, a methodology artisans to design hand1made paper prod- edge the feminist art movement in social- of the hand papermaking movement before Wack!: Art and the Feminist Revolution. Los Angeles: Museum of Contemporary Art, 2007: 471. collective vision to linger, ultimately exceed- that came to epitomize the movement, in- ucts for both local and international markets. ly engaged art discourse belies a desire to it is too late to properly record it. 5. Guillen, Melinda. Now, Not Now and Now: Toward a ing individual contributions.4 spired legions of feminist artists and col- For the Social Paper exhibition, she built a maintain the status quo. Today, scholarship Social practice under the rubric of fem- Feminist Social Envisioning of Social Practice. A Thesis So where do we find a feminist-inspired, lectives and remains a primary tactic in traditional Filipino roadside stand for her and archival material on women are in crisis inism offers a new context for works once Presented to the Faculty of the USC Roski School of Fine Arts University of Southern California, May 5 socially engaged hand papermaking project socially engaged art. A number of the so- artisans to sell their works. Proceeds were not only due to their long-term neglect, but relegated to the categories of “activism,” 2011: 20. in Chicago? The WomanCraft project cially engaged projects in the Social Paper wired back to the community. also to the drastic defunding of the arts. In “social work,” and “art therapy,” which the
20 LEFT: The Great Women Project (image courtesy of Trisha Martin.) ABOVE: Yanomami paper project, 1992 (Image courtesy of Laura Anderson Barbata.) 21 A Paper History BY GAIL DEERY
Recently, an article by New York Times re- further to the west. Paper and papermaking and commercial structure. For example, comprised more than 30,000 drawings, wa- porter Mark Levine posed the question, still support artistic practices as evidenced papermakers learned to separate rags into tercolors, sketchbooks, and preparatory Can a Papermaker Help to Save a Civiliza- by the number of artists working with paper categories, reserving the whitest rags for studies on paper for paintings. As a result, tion? A captivating headline for a profile in socially engaged endeavors. fine stationery, and coarse rope and colored the collection documents handmade paper’s of Timothy Barrett, and one that caught Paper mills first appeared in Spain rags for wrapping paper. Before the inven- evolution, serves as an essential reference my attention as I commuted to work early and Italy. It is not surprising that Italy’s tion of the beater, rags were fermented to for Turner’s methods, and provides a valu- one morning.1 Professor Barrett of the Uni- Fabriano paper mill in the Ancona prov- better break down their fibers. able inventory of handmade papers in use versity of Iowa is a scholar, a scientist, a ince of the Marche region became one of As the demand for paper increased, in Europe during this period.6 craftsman, and a MacArthur Fellow for his the foremost paper-producing centers of so did the range, grade, and quality that Can we conclude, from Turner’s lifelong dedication to and research in the the thirteenth century due to its location became available. Consequently, paper’s example, that a type of collaboration takes field of hand-papermaking. Barrett believes along an established trade route.3 Fabria- design and production became competi- place when an artist uses handmade sheets paper knits together our whole culture. As no’s skilled, dedicated craftsmen improved tive and specialized. Advances, like the cre- of paper? Each sheet of such paper reveals evidenced by the exhibition Social Paper, he production and distribution methods that ation of a papermaking machine, and new the hand of the maker, its maker’s years of may well be right. other Italian mills eventually adopted. Al- methods for sourcing raw materials gener- ardent craft and the unique characteristics Social Paper is a thoughtful, thoroughly though Northern European mills also ex- ated increasing specialization. Paper mills embedded within each sheet. Historically, constructed exhibition that locates hand-pa- ported paper, Italy dominated until the began adapting papers to special needs and artists chose papers that best suited their permaking at the center of a burgeoning eighteenth century. With advances continu- a range of handmade papers for drawing needs then prepared their paper as needed. genre of creative artistic engagements. ing, papermaking blossomed throughout became available to consumers.5 Turner did this by washing the surfaces of The term handpapermaking refers to a Europe. Paper became more readily avail- many of his papers and applying a preparato- longstanding tradition or art of making able and broadened literacy. HANDMADE PAPER TODAY ry ground to enhance the papers’ tooth. By paper that includes its roots in industrial In the beginning of the eighteenth Today’s handmade paper recalls the history his alterations, Turner adapted handmade trade and production. Paper has an extensive century, small two-vat paper mills in and origins of this ancient craft, and many paper to his needs. Did Turner’s engage- history of documenting cultural change and England produced low-grade papers gener- paper mills produce traditional paper with ment foreshadow the untapped potential of affecting everyday life. It has long been ally made from rope and sorted, colored rags. distinctive craft qualities for niche markets. handmade paper as a profound art medium? a valuable commodity: first for holding England imported most of its white hand- Cottage industry print shops using nine- Was it a herald of creative engagement by written languages; subsequently, for made paper from France. As educated and teenth-century printing techniques main- future artists and technicians creating pro- printed texts and images; finally, for the discerning clients sought different papers tain old traditions and are defined by quality found art? conveyance of knowledge. to accommodate different tasks, English printing on handmade paper. Paper prod- It’s interesting to note that until the Exactly when paper first appeared has papermaking diversified by developing ucts produced locally in neighborhood 1960s artists purchased paper mainly as a long been a subject of scholarly discussion. papers for varied uses. After all, stationary, storefronts or community studios are sold substrate and that many artists were using It likely existed well before 105 A.D. when drawing, wrapping, and printing papers all through boutique shops and, through web- handmade papers for printing, drawing, and it is commonly held that Cai Lin (aka Cai possess distinctive characteristics, and pa- sites, distributed to global online markets. painting. The material quality of paper was Lun), a Han dynasty imperial court official, permakers learned how to alter fibers during J. M. W. Turner, a master of drawing still an uncharted territory. Subsequent- invented paper.2 Lin is credited with invent- processing to enhance their papers’ quality. and painting, worked on various types of ly, it was investigated by those interest- ing both the formula for paper and the pa- Driven by consumer needs, papermak- handmade papers. It can only be speculat- ed in handmade paper’s adaptable nature. permaking process. However paper existed ers implemented strategies that focused on ed how his concern for the surface of his Dard Hunter, for example, wrote exten- in some form prior to Lin as archaeologists the complex materiality of paper. When papers might have influenced the execu- sively on the history and technique of pa- have discovered much earlier examples. experienced French workers relocated tion of his work. All of Turner’s drawing permaking. He traveled and developed re- Eventually, the knowledge of paper and to England, they altered production to papers were made by hand from about 1787 lationships with historians and artisans, papermaking migrated westward along the suit new modes of distribution and im- to 1820, except for a few used later in his and published several books on the subject. Silk Road. Arabic cultures improved the proved business methods.4 Skilled labor career. When Turner died, he bequeathed his Douglass Howell, interested in an improved paper process and spread papermaking helped further advance paper’s fabrication work to the British nation. Turner’s bequest paper for printing engravings, read Dard
ABOVE: Research pages from Helen Hieberts’ log books on papermaking. Used in her books on the topic, 22 including Papermaking with Plants , published in 1997. (Image courtesy of Chelsey Shilling.) 23 Hunter and experimented until he produced FROM CRAFT TO ART socially engaged papermaking. Crossing political broadside, the work displays a range a comprehensive display and reading, Social Selection and Use of His Drawing Papers 1787- a paper better suited for printing his limit- Bookbinding and papermaking are no longer Over/Changing Places was a six-year travel- of emotions central to the plight of the art- Paper brings some of these early projects to 1820,Tate Gallery 1990. 7. Laurence Barker, Laurence Barker, Barcelona, I. In- 7 ed-edition books. Driven by paper’s aes- working class trades. They now serve the ar- ing exhibition and cultural program that ist’s homeland. Stančič’s provocative work, our attention. ternational Biennial of Paper Art: Handmade Paper, thetic qualities, Howell adapted his pulp tistic voice’s need to express itself in a world celebrated cultural diversity and cultural which insists the world not look away, was Social Paper’s great value is the manner Duren: Leopold-Hoesch Museum, 1986. by working with colored fiber. His painter- dominated by digital culture. exchanges. It was funded by many entities, prominently installed in the Crossing Over/ in which it highlights projects that support 8. “Laurence Barker Paper Artist - articles.” 2002.
24 25 The Mobile Mill, a Traveling Paper Studio BY JILLIAN BRUSCHERA
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU TAKE THE with the help of others. In sharing their community-generated paper artworks. This framework, it has the potential to spawn STUDIO OUTSIDE THE STUDIO? visions and ideas, my collaborators became said, the art is more about the people than unexpected, meaningful experiences for its Inspired by my experience as a teaching part of my decision-making process. The the objects produced. workshops’ participants. With an emphasis artist in hand papermaking, The Mobile plans always changed with the talking. This Beyond housing and carrying equip- on process, rather than product, this sort of Mill sustains a lifetime in arts education. It project was always about building some- ment, The Mobile Mill is a vehicle for social creative pedagogy directly challenges tra- evolved from my social and artistic engage- thing together. practice. Operated by the human hand for ditional hierarchies in academia and in the ment with the Columbia College Chicago In the spring of 2014, I traveled to the people who want to make paper by hand, its art world, moving away from authoritarian community as a graduate student and San Francisco Bay Area for the build out. mechanisms and its intentions are social. models of education and off the gallery walls. adjunct faculty member in the Interdisci- With a family in the construction industry, As a form of socially engaged art (SEA), By driving hand papermaking outside plinary Arts Department, and my involve- my California connections proved crucial this studio-on-wheels questions how collab- the traditionally static studio, The Mobile ment with the Papermaker’s Garden project to making The Mobile Mill. I assembled a orative artistic gestures and thoughtful con- Mill makes the craft more accessible, even and the Social Paper exhibition at the Center three-person fabrication team that included versation can serve as powerful methods for given the expensive, esoteric equipment it for Book and Paper in Chicago. myself and two other artisans—my brother change. Though dependent on a creative sen- requires. Conventional ideas of audience or Having spent much of my graduate Maxum Bruschera and family friend Bill sibility or artistic imagination, SEA places a spectatorship in art get lost when anyone can career seeking opportunities to stretch my Florence. For four weeks, they dedicated greater emphasis on activity than aesthetics. become a producer. This sort of “expanded” artistic practice, I became interested in gen- their time, energy, and expertise to making While definitions of SEA and the objectives participation challenges traditional notions erating a type of interaction with communi- my wacky paper dream a reality. of social artists vary, many art theorists feel of art and education by broadening notions ty that considers an actual human ecology. In Bill’s workshop, we hand-modified two that SEA projects are characterized by a drive of where art can be made and who can make As I entered my MFA thesis year in the Inter- pushcarts to fit my portable papermaking to empower creative collective action. These it. As a portable space that can make both disciplinary Arts Book and Paper program, needs. The Mobile Mill was built with a do-it- are projects that champion shared ideas, scheduled and spontaneous stops, The Mobile the boundaries of education, and shatters “Leaving things better than you found I sought to tackle the pedagogic format by yourself ethos in the sense that nearly every engaging both people and issues. The Mobile Mill offers endless opportunities for collab- the student-teacher hierarchy. It shows how them” is a familiar motto in the studios at the designing and implementing a mobile paper part—store-bought or scrap-yard sourced— Mill considers how making art—in this case, oration, in as many locations as a truck can creative pedagogy can lend itself to the con- Center for Book and Paper Arts—and while studio that would allow me to engage the was repurposed. Much of this reappropria- mobilizing the craft of handmade paper— access. The Mobile Mill brings an art experi- struction of a collective identity, even if it serves as a reminder to tidy up commu- public directly as a traveling teaching artist. tion involved thinking far beyond an object’s might encourage community engagement ence to a public—any public. temporarily. When people come together nal workspaces, these words can and should Simply put, The Mobile Mill is an effort intended function. For instance, old alumi- and affirm our shared existence. Beyond basic instruction in hand pa- in this way, education becomes a powerful extend beyond the classroom. Art—symbolic to go beyond the studio walls. num road signs became tabletop braces, and In the twenty-first century, the value of permaking, my primary role as operator tool that promotes cooperative dialogue and or actual—has the power to affect change. In the early fall of 2014, I used the pre-consumer textile scraps were stitched art and craft remain in their concern for hu- of The Mobile Mill lies in creating an inclu- group action. I built The Mobile Mill not knowing exactly online crowd-funding platform Indie GoGo1 together to make aprons. For me, “sustain- manistic processes. While it has always been sive, temporary space in which I can bring After its art-making-on-the-streets debut what it would do or where it would go, but to spread the word about and raise money able” means working with what I have and a shared skill, hand papermaking is gener- people together. As a teaching artist, I am at the 2014 Columbia College Chicago Man- because I desired to reach out to others. I for The Mobile Mill project. I conceived mul- making from what I know. As a maker, I am ally considered to be a “fine” or “high” craft learning that I listen best when I allow in- ifest Festival, The Mobile Mill made appear- look forward to wherever this work takes tiple versions of The Mobile Mill. My sketch- interested in giving new life to the forgot- known only to specially trained persons. dividual needs and learning styles to shape ances at the Chicago Museum of Contem- me, both in and outside the confines of art. es changed continuously as I consulted ten remnants of our human consumption. Working as a curatorial research assistant my curriculum. Hearing is what creates porary Art, the Center on Halsted, and the As my friend Bill Florence would with thesis committee members Melissa Housed in a small pick-up truck, The for the Social Paper exhibition, I learned this mutually beneficial exchanges. The educa- closing reception for RISK: Empathy, Art, and say, “Let the tool do the work.” Potter and April Sheridan and dialogued Mobile Mill treats art as a shared experi- perspective has shifted thanks to the efforts tion I wish to give is not about filling heads Social Practice. The Mobile Mill is spending the with an array of knowledgeable persons ence, transporting uncommon craft re- of contemporary papermakers working in with facts and figures, it is about teaching summer of 2014 working with local artists Jillian Bruschera received an MFA in Book including auto-body mechanics, car dealers, sources into the public realm. Hands-on the social realm over the past three decades. by example and then handing tools directly and arts initiatives in Chicago. I have devel- and Paper Art from the Interdisciplinary Arts small business owners, general contrac- art education takes the form of indoor/ Designed to function in both planned to students. oped a series of Make and Take workshops Department at Columbia College Chicago tors, college professors, food-truck opera- outdoor “pop-up” papermaking workshops and unplanned situations, as well as known In taking responsibility for myself as that focus on the idea of paying-it-forward in 2014. tors, home builders, farmers, academic ad- in which participants learn how to repur- and unfamiliar locations, The Mobile Mill is a traveling teaching artist with a portable through hand papermaking. In these work- ministrators, papermakers, and art studio pose paper waste through papermaking. a mutable, moving space that constantly studio, I built something that may pose more shops, a participant who pulls a sheet of paper 1. For the online campaign for The Mobile Mill, see www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-mobile-mill 2 technicians. The Mobile Mill was, from the Those who attend The Mobile Mill workshops resituates hand papermaking through dis- questions than answers. The Mobile Mill blurs receives a sheet of paper made by someone 2. A full digital anthology archiving this project can start, an idea that could only be carried out become part of a workflow that results in placement. Independent of any institutional the lines between art and experience, pushes else at a prior workshop. be found online at www.themobilemill.tumblr.com.
26 ABOVE: The Mobile Mill. 27 Amplifying Objects BY JESSICA COCHRAN
“You want a project, we want a society,” were the galleries featured the outcomes of social did this following the idea of “artereality,” a the words spoken by artist Ernesto Pujol exchanges. It was important to us that we “You want a project, practical term coined by Jeffrey T. Schnapp in a performative lecture on activism and curate programs and events to animate the we want a society.” and Michael Shanks, that means a specific agency at the Museum of Contemporary galleries –and to provide opportunities for kind of approach that “places the design Art, Chicago, just days after the close of education and connection. As curator of of desire) to accurately quantify “outcomes” and production of art objects and goods in our exhibition Social Paper in April, 2014. social practice John Spiak has pointed out, through data that can be presented on grant a more discipline dynamic context, shifting Spoken from a corner of the stage, the artist the “success” of an exhibition is often bound reports or in budget meetings. The other the focus away from ‘pure’ creation toward was standing barefoot and gripping a broom. up in what can’t be quantified in numbers. great challenge—and reason why the acti- the management of networks, links, flows, His words transcended that darkened au- According to him, success can “refer” to vation of such exhibitions through events translations, and mediations . . .” in a “con- ditorium and they have eclipsed time, too, . . . quality of connections made. We hear and didactics is so important—is that often ception of arts practice that is coterminous 4 remaining with me and others who sat in personal stories; we observe the personal the objects in an exhibition are not legible with research and pedagogy.” that room. impact. These are the types of results that to viewers in the same way more “refined” The images that accompany this text When organizing Social Paper, I began attendance figures cannot quantify, that artworks are, such as paintings, drawings document the events and activities we de- as a curator looking for projects. In turn, tour numbers and budgets can not attest or sculpture. In a review of Social Paper veloped to complement the Social Paper exhi- Social Paper featured artists who want a to, and unfortunately most foundations that appeared in the Chicago Tribune, Lori bition. From a mobile mill at the College Art society. As Jaclyn Jacunski wrote in Art in and agencies are resigned to requesting this Waxman wrote: Association to social drawing at the Museum Print, the exhibition “revealed the inter- kind of limited information as a measure of Why someone would want to transform of Contemporary Art Chicago, a sewing 2 disciplinary practices and multiple roles of success in standard final reports. this stuff into paper is another story, many circle to a group discussion on labor rela- socially concerned artists as micro-business As such, the challenges to presenting stories, some deeply moving, others inspir- tions and labor histories at the Jane Addams managers, educators, historians.”1 From socially engaged artwork in the gallery are ing, perplexing or just plain nifty. “Social Hull House, Social Paper was an opportunity “people’s libraries” to sheets of “peace paper,” often characterized by an inability (or lack Paper,” a crowded, ambitious exhibition to bring together individuals, generate new at the Columbia College Center for Book ideas, make paper, and have a meaningful and Paper Arts, tries to tell them all. This is time while doing it. not an easy task, and many of the modest, intimate artworks in the show speak in a 1. Jacunski, Jaclyn. “Paper as Politics and Process.” Art whisper or not at all. That doesn’t mean in Print, Vol. 4, No. 2 (July 2014): 42. 2. Spiak, John. “Connecting—Inside and Out.” Museums their narratives aren’t worth hearing; it & Social Issues, Vol. 6, No. 1 (Spring 2011): 62. just means the listening can be hard. To help, 3. Flaxman, Lori. “Social Paper has ambition, doesn’t co-curators Jessica Cochran and Melissa engage.” Chicago Tribune, March 5, 2014. 4. Schnapp, Jeffrey T. and Michael Shanks, “Artereal- Potter provide a timeline, wall texts and ity: Rethinking Craft in a Knowledge Economy,” in didactic videos, but imagination and Art School (Propositions for the 21st Century), Steven empathy are needed to take the viewer Henry Madoff (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2009), 143. further in the direction of understanding and, better yet, open engagement.3 Melissa Potter and I spent a great deal of time developing the exhibition’s didactic elements and events. While this was in order to animate the objects, it was also due to the location of the exhibition at the nexus— physical, social, and intellectual—of an MFA studio art program within an art college. We
CLOCKWISE FROM BOTTOM LEFT: The People’s Library papermaking workshop at the Columbia College Chicago Library, February 2014; The People’s Library discussion group in association with Chicago Zine Fest, March 2014; A ceremonial planting in the Papermaker’s Garden at Columbia College 28 Chicago with Nicholas A. Basbanes, author of On Paper: The Everything of its Two-Thousand-Year History. 29 Toward a New Happy Ending BY STUART KEELER
The twenty-first century brought innova- “Life has become significantly more political in the new millennium, The artists’ statement is key: “The as a repetitive process, visually or experien- and inviting viewer-participants to com- tive art practices and artist interventions especially in the aftermath of worldwide financial crisis. Art is both People’s Librarians believe that the how, tially, plays a more active role than merely plete the art process on their own terms. that continue to expand the participatory where, with whom, and why we labor is as serving as a medium for images and text. Objects of violence and isolation become driving and documenting this upheaval. Increasingly, new visual role of the viewer. Collaboration and social important as what we produce. Thus the Paper and politics have historically worked vehicles for creation and community. From process seem to reanimate core principles of concepts and commentaries are being used to represent and communicate way the project has developed—in that hand-in-hand to shift ideas, create groups, this community collaboration, authentic- Suzanne Lacy’s groundbreaking new genre emotionally charged topics, thereby bringing them onto local political it’s collective, slow, discursive, tactile, and break down ideologies and inspire leaders. ity emerges, and the experience of con- model in an inspiring way. Such endeavors and social agendas in a way far more powerful than words alone.” public, as well as sources discarded mate- The artists in Social Paper highlight the nection through a shared action becomes seek to activate both artistic and non-artis- rials—further imbues it with social and power of paper by creating a social move- a form of empowerment. tic communities, while privileging the often ART & AGENDA: POLITICAL ART AND ACTIVISM, GESTALTEN, 2011 political possibilities.” By proposing a new ment and furthering an activist agenda. Collaboration is present in Social Paper ephemeral and social interactions that arise, focus for the process of history-making, the They empower their communities to author in the conception and production of the rather than a singular art object or exhibition engagement—until relatively recently, paper of the work and allow the viewer to operate artists also reference the message of their themselves—a powerful gesture that re- artworks as well as in the dissemination of gallery practice. was the primary means of political demon- almost independently. medium—paper again has been used for a defines traditional notions of what art is their contents and messages. This reflects In a form of social art practice I have stration and voice. Signage, posters, and plac- What happens when a socially based call to action. and can be. a trend in the larger art world—the prolif- termed “Service Media,” artists create work ards were pasted, stripped and taped into exercise allows participants to complete the Is interaction a new pluralism that Art, argues Groys, is hardly a powerless eration around the world of collaborative through which the landscape of the city the urban realm, signifying a textual call for piece based on their personal experiences? allows us to connect via emotionally based commodity subject to art market fiats of in- and collective art practices over the past becomes a studio and viewers choose their citizen response. By focusing on the act of pa- At the main branch of the Richmond Public participation? The artist sets the frame- clusion and exclusion. Papermaking marks fifteen years. InThe One and the Many, Grant level of engagement. Service Media assume permaking, Social Paper infuses this immedi- Library in Richmond, Virginia, Social Paper work and the participant in the collabora- a new entry into the equation of the art H. Kester argues that these parallels are a porosity between audience and landscape acy with a new, modernist turn. Social Paper artists Cortney Bowles and Mark Strand- tive gesture creates the result. In a similar market and high-art world, beyond outdat- symptomatic of an important transition in and call into question what is and isn’t art, is about action and connection, focusing on quist instigated a movement and created a stream, Maggie Puckett’s work The Big ed delineations between craft and art. With contemporary art practice, as conventional usually within the community of the artist. I collaboration and the creation and reinforce- “real and symbolic meeting place for alien- Here: Chicago is a participatory installation sensitivity and an under-the-radar presence, notions of aesthetic autonomy are redefined contend the role of the artist has entered the ment of communities, often in public spaces. ated publics.” In a project called the People’s of thirty-five questions set on handmade these projects engage communities with a and renegotiated. He describes a shift from stage of the everyday, activating the space What is innovative about Social Paper Library, the artists left a thousand blank paper designed to test and increase eco- service that transforms the end result and the concept of art as something envisioned beyond the traditional white cube (thank- is that its artists present the papermaking books at the library for anyone in the com- logical awareness. At first glance, this may gives the most seasoned social practitioners beforehand by the artist and placed before fully). As viewers become participants in process as a means to connect and converse, munity to check out, bring home, fill with appear non-committal, perhaps even lazy grounds to begin rethinking connectivity the viewer to the concept of art as a process the work, collaborative activism also seems and make their connection an integral part their histories, and bring back to the library on the part of the artist—its open-ended and community processes. of reciprocal creative labor. As exemplified to become part of our unified global experi- of the art experience. Work in this genre, to add to its permanent collection. Personal aspect allows viewers to engage on their The act of papermaking is both cathar- in Service Media projects such as those in ence, either through implication or conscious operating as a social practice, is new. The art stories of ordinary citizens take their place own terms, even choose not to engage at all, tic and empowering in Drew Matott’s and Social Paper, artists hand over the concepts choice. In Service Media, process becomes is the process, not some magical object or in a public library alongside stories of prom- with minimal intervention from the artist. Drew Cameron’s Combat Paper Project. The and projects run their course based upon art, and participation in art’s process becomes gallery manifestation presented as a single inent historical figures. However, as in the People’s Library, artists run papermaking workshops in which personal interaction and emotional own- a way to challenge the privilege historically experiential moment. Here, as with so many In the People’s Library project, art not Puckett’s medium is integral to her message. Iraq War veterans transform their service ership on the part of participants. associated with art and artists. social projects, collaborative production only takes place outside a gallery space, it Each question is articulated on paper made uniforms into works of art. The uniforms If we begin to think about socially The exhibition Social Paper highlights at the outset requires an open platform, addresses a need in the community, provid- of organic fibers, amplifying the question’s are cut up, beaten into a pulp, and formed engaged art as a means to a new ending, this shift. In the words of curator and activ- and trust in the viewer. The conversation ing individuals with a voice and highlighting content. Visitors are encouraged to write into sheets of paper. Through this transfor- this ending just might be happier and more ist Melissa Potter, the exhibition “highlights between artist, artwork and viewer becomes unknown histories. The artists’ reference to and draw answers directly on the installa- mative process, participants reclaim their authentic, and a way for socially based ac- the evolution of the art of hand papermak- key to the experience and, as with Service the resulting installation as “a thousand mi- tion, and the pages are ultimately bound into uniforms and express their experiences in tivist gestures to lead us to a better un- ing in relation to recent discourse around Media projects, the viewer rather than the cro-monuments” is on point. By relinquish- an artist’s book. As with Service Media and the military in a creative act. The emotional derstanding of our world and those we are socially engaged art and points specifically artist ultimately negotiates the experience. ing control over the project to their audience, other genres of social practice, the art is in and at times isolating memories of war can near. Not that art must be happy—that to craft, labor, and site specificity, as well as How and with whom we choose to engage is and by attributing significance to the results the participation. be transformed into a community experi- would be sad—but maybe we can thank the collaborative and community aspects part of the collaborative mystique and en- equal to that accorded traditional “official” Theoretician Boris Groys suggests that ence, facilitated by the act of papermaking. Social Paper for opening a new beginning of hand papermaking as contemporary art terprise of community projects. The artist histories, Bowles and Strandquist created a image-based works in multiples link us to Working in the vein of a Service Media . . . and hopefully a more positive end. practice.” As a medium, paper lends itself to is merely the catalyst, and may even choose new form of monument and challenged tra- politics, ideas, and education in the public project, Combat Paper artists provide a Stuart Keeler is the Director and Curator a particularly compelling discourse on civic to remove him or herself from the meaning ditional understandings of the term. realm. I argue that paper in the public realm service, working in their own communities of the Art Gallery of Mississauga.
30 31 Live Knowledge Production BY JENNI SORKIN
The history of experiential artwork has and flexible: a plethora of objects, such as papermakers further exhibition and resi- workshops, utilizing volumes withdrawn Such an undertaking is in keeping with process traumatic events and initiate some- always been written on a bias, cut from uniforms, photographs and junk mail, can dency opportunities. from circulation. The group and its collab- the historic leanings of craft in the indus- thing like healing. The processing takes its the cloth of avant-garde performance and be pulped into the raw materials necessary Many artists also follow trajectories orators repurpose the paper into handmade trialized world. For much of the twentieth cue from the hands-on, live form of paper- events, rather than from craft media and the to create textured sheets of paper. that replicate these intentions on a smaller blank books that would then re-circulate on century, craft had a therapeutic dimension, making itself. Therefore, the paper bears the collectivity inherent in craft’s processes. This magical quality of giving volume scale. Examples include Kiff Slemmons, the shelves of the library, offering patrons which is reflected in a number of the proj- weight of memory, a flexible material that The genealogies of participatory art estab- and shape to a previously inert, wet mass is who works with indigenous women in the forbidden possibility of sharing stories, ects seen in Social Paper. In the first years bends, but does not crack, break, or shatter, lished by Claire Bishop and Boris Groys are part of the strong attractiveness of paper- rural Mexico to design and produce wear- writing in found books, and crafting alter- after World War I, craft was widely promot- a metaphor for the resilience of not only the wholly tied to a European model of perfor- making in the digital age: the deft touch of able paper jewelry; Julia Goodman, who re- native communal narratives. ed in Great Britain as a therapeutic method medium of paper, but the splendid sense of mance and non-object avant-garde practice. the human hand enlivens refuse or waste. claims forgotten women’s labor at Recology, In Social Paper, collaboration itself is pre- by which to rehabilitate returning war vet- possibility and blankness it provides and, But that’s only one trajectory. The process of making paper becomes a met- a San Francisco-based waste and recycling sented as a flexible idea. Julia Goodman, for erans. Knowingly or not, Peace Paper and by extension, Social Paper, as an exhibition, Craft is an important but unacknowl- aphor for transformation, for the poten- center; and Maggie Puckett, who makes instance, working with a forgotten histori- Combat Paper bear the legacy of this history. provides: a space on which to project and edged antecedent, in which artists have tial to alter, change, improve or express an artist’s books about global climate change. cal record, examined the labor of Italian im- Peace Paper was founded as a humani- imagine a better world. engaged with their aesthetic experiences idea, a collective sentiment, even dissent. Fresh Press is based in the university migrant rag pickers and trash collectors, the tarian organization whose members direct centered on the acquisition of skill. Ceram- Rather than through a lone artist working community in Champaign, Illinois, the lowest social strata in early twentieth-cen- projects geared toward specific community Jenni Sorkin is assistant professor of ics, metals, wood, glass, fiber, and paper- in a studio or residency, papermaking’s live heart of the grain belt. The press works tury San Francisco. Utilizing refuse on the interests. For instance, they conduct Panty contemporary art history at University of making are all media that encourage the knowledge production is better disseminat- off a laboratory model, dedicated to edu- very site of their labors, at Recology, she Pulping workshops on college campuses, California, Santa Barbara. making of objects in group settings, ranging ed in group settings that demand active, cation and experimentation and makes made small headstone-like homages, spell- transforming worn underwear into hand- from university classrooms and summer non-hierarchical participation. earth-friendly paper from non-wood ing out the women’s names in fancy scripts made paper, and turning so-called unmen- workshops to community centers. The transformative potential of both sources, including agricultural fibers such made of pure white cotton-like paper in- tionables into a metaphor for the shame The community ethos in craft practice the material and its surrounding commu- as hemp, flax, and kenaf—all plants that stalled on a white wall, ghosting it with foisted upon women by the unspeakable vi- is due partly to craft’s requirement of large- nity lend hand papermaking social signifi- grow faster than traditional pine and with their presence. olence of rape. The group exercise of turning scale and pricey specialty equipment, such cance. Social Paper seeks to map the living fewer chemicals and less water. They also Kiff Slemmons uses paper to advocate undergarments into paper is meant to ini- as wood-fired kilns (ceramics), forges (black- attributes of handmade paper as it is recov- require less processing during pulping. for economic independence in Oaxaca, tiate a cathartic dialogue on rape, non-con- smithing), and looms with computer assist- ered, circulated and utilized by contempo- Likewise, in Chicago, Maggie Puckett Mexico, creating a collaborative situation sent, and sexual violence. ed design (CAD) technologies (weaving). It rary artists. In choosing paper as a medium and Melissa Potter initiated Seeds In Service in which indigenous women learned paper In 2007, artist Drew Matott and veteran is also due to the persistence of collective of collective expression, the exhibition’s (2014), planting an heirloom vegetable and bead-making to make jewelry they could and artist Drew Cameron founded the skill building that lends itself to a style of projects display a range of multimedia flower garden from which paper could be sell and benefit from financially. The project Combat Paper Project to reach out to vet- learning that is inherently non-hierarchi- formats, including posters, websites, books made at Hull House, the historic settlement began as a residency for Slemmons at Arte erans feeling the effects of violence in con- cal—an organic classroom in which people bound by hand, video, documentary film, center. The duo held harvesting and paper- Papel in Oaxaca. flict zones, sexual trauma in the military learn beside, with, and from each other. installation, and jewelry. Paper becomes the making workshops and created an ad-hoc Artist residency programs often foster or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This is one of the things craft is really impetus for a host of projects that expand distribution center for radical feminist lit- cultural and local exchanges. The Women’s In workshops across the country, veterans good at—offering community. You might be into other mediums, and circulates beyond erature, which they distributed with the Studio Workshop in Rosendale, New York, were encouraged to pulp their military uni- less skilled than the person next to you, but the makers themselves. seeds and care instructions, extending the for example, offers year-round residencies forms and use the resulting paper to begin the sense of competition and envy dimin- These projects are linked largely garden’s metaphor to mean the seeding or for emerging women artists to explore the a journey toward recovery. The idea relied ishes when the tenor of the room is focused through their collective idealism. Some cultivation of future generations of activ- book arts and its papermaking facilities in on the healing effects of papermaking in a on learning a skill collectively. There is an are driven by ecology and sustainability, ist artists and gardeners. The model of sus- a supportive environment. With a political group setting. unparalleled sense of satisfaction when you such as Fresh Press; some by civic engage- tainable practice became under their care a mandate, Paper Road/Tibet is an organiza- Part of the therapeutic benefit Peace make something tangible in the real world. ment, such as the People’s Library; some by pedagogical event for the community and tion working to reestablish the traditional Paper and Combat Paper implicitly promise Hand papermaking contains all the attri- a therapeutic intent, such as Peace Paper and a project space for artists. art of hand papermaking in Tibet, a craft come from writing. Handmade paper and butes of craft and community, yet it is argu- Combat Paper; and others, like the Women’s Such dualism is also reflected in The displaced by China’s incursions. The orga- the intimacy of the process lends itself to ably the most pliant of its sister crafts in Studio Workshop and Paper Road/Tibet, People’s Library, a collective of emerging nization also teaches vocational papermak- journaling, self-reflection, imaging, and that its material requirements are generous by longstanding commitments to offering artists who started weekly papermaking ing skills to handicapped Tibetan children. collaging, all activities that help individuals
32 33 Artists of SOCIAL PAPER Art Farm WORKS BY TALYA BAHARAL, KEN GRAY, AND ALISON KNOWLES
In 1979, the Women’s Studio Workshop (WSW) became one of the first organiza- tions to offer all artists access to its hand papermaking studio. WSW had, for ten years, operated a production mill that used tradi- tional western papermaking fibers. In 1990, the emphasis began to shift to working with locally grown material. By 1996, WSW and the nearby Community Supported Agricul- ture project had begun to collaborate. This was the beginning of ArtFarm. With help from AmeriCorps volunteers, 2 ArtFarm grew plants known to produce pa- permaking fibers. ArtFarm also raised ex- perimental plants to use in new types of paper and to combine with and enhance traditional fibers. It planted native species, gathered invasive species, and tested the materials for strength, coloring capability, and print worthiness. To encourage artists to work with the materials, WSW invited fluxus artist Alison Knowles, sculptor Talya Baharal, and print- maker Ken Gray to residencies focused on experimenting with ArtFarm fibers. The work resulted in a traveling exhibition, From Seed to Sheet. 1 Today, WSW’s studio manager and vol- 3 unteers manage ArtFarm, and the entire process, from planting to processing, has 1. Image courtesy of Art Farm. become integral to WSW’s education pro- 2. Ken Gray, Untitled, Red-blue magazine clippings, sad face, embedded catalog pages, relief print, 10 grams, Summer Arts Institute, and Hands- x 7 inches. On Art. 3. Alison Knowles, Flip Flop, found shoe parts, corn husk, and abaca fiber embedded in handmade paper (sea shoe), handmade paper and mixed media, 8.5 x 6 inches. 4. Talya Baharal, Split Hung Vertebrae, Steel and abaca, 54 x 3 inches.
4
36 37 Cathleen Mooses XI SERIES
XI is part of Cathleen Mooses’ continuing Mexican government only recently acknowl- One of the primary aesthetic and political research into amate papermaking traditions edged as an official language. Many Otomí struggles of modernity has been the disloca- among contemporary Otomí communities children and young adults migrate to the tion of images from any particular site, and in Mexico. Her series of photographic prints major urban centers in Mexico and the United their insertion in networks where they are and paper cutouts is a visual study of archi- States to study or seek employment, height- characterized by motion, either potential or tectural space as a form of portraiture. She ening the demand to learn new languages actual, and are capable of changing format— extracts from this simple geometric forms while preserving their mother tongue. of experiencing cascading chains of relocation and explores ideas of abstraction and cultur- Mooses’ artistic practice, her deep and remediation. al displacement as they relate to emigration consideration of a dying language (Ñuhu) patterns and cultural transformation. and her concept of diaspora in relation to the 1. XI, Artist’s book, 2012. Digital prints and amate paper, 9 ½ x 12 ½ inches (closed). Created in In Ñuhu, the Otomí language, xi is a resilient Otomí tradition of hand papermak- residence at the Center For Book and Paper Arts prefix used to refer to bodily orifices, leaves, ing, embody what theorists such as Hal Foster 2. Twist and Shift, photogravure on handmade lips, eyelids, pubic hair, and surfaces—items have called “the artist as ethnographer.” If an amate paper, 2014, Dimensions variable. pertinent to their traditional paper cutouts. artist performs rigorous cultural or site-spe- Based on her understanding of xi, Mooses cific research in an expanded, durational ca- began to document relationships among pacity, how does she translate the complex everyday objects during her travels around narratives that result into an art object? Mexico City and the papermaking commu- Mooses has cited as important to her nity of San Pablito, Puebla. Specifically, she work critic David Joselit’s characterization was observing the town’s and the city’s ar- of art as a “migrant object” and a contem- chitectural facades as possible analogies porary currency destined to leave its place for masks. of origin. She wrote: Twist & Shift consists of looped construc- tion bands and a disjointed landscape that reference the potential development of a unique typology or rebus-like riddle. The landscape is a printed photogravure on hand- made amate that documents her great-grand- father’s ranch in northeastern Mexico. Mooses learned to make amate in 2010 in San Pablito. In pre-Columbian times, amate was used to record important cultur- al events. Amate cutout figurines have also been traditionally used in Otomí healing rituals. The cutouts are typically made from a folded piece of amate, creating a symmet- rical or mirrored image. Today, amate has been largely commodified and is a primary source of income in San Pablito. While learning to make amate, Mooses met with linguists who contributed to the 1 2 phonetic transcription of Ñuhu, which the
38 39 Combat Paper
Founded by Columbia College Book and Paper MFA graduate Drew Matott and veteran and artist Drew Cameron in 2007, Combat Paper and its affiliate groups have given hundreds of combat veterans across the world the opportunity to transform their uniforms into paper-based artworks. Over five days, experienced workshop facilitators teach veterans papermaking pro- cesses such as sheet formation, pulp paint- ing, pulp printing, basic bookbinding, and creative writing. At the same time, they create safe, communal, creative spaces in 1 which combat vets can share, experiment, and collaborate as they learn. The selection of Combat Paper artwork and ephemera in Social Paper began with pieces of Drew Cameron’s uniform and first “combat paper recipe,” and culminated with recent works from Combat Paper New Jersey, a Combat Paper affiliate. 3 Works in the exhibition were loaned by the Rare Book and Manuscript Library at the University of Illinois and the Printmaking Center of New Jersey.
1. Justin Jacobs, Why I Don’t Write War Stories. Handmade paper with print, 16 x 16 inches. Loaned by the Printmaking Center of New Jersey David Keefe, Rasul, Handmade paper with print, 16 x 20 inches, Loaned by the Printmaking Center of New Jersey. 2–4. Combat Paper, Various Ephemera, 2008–2010. Patches, fabric, and a camouflage trouser pocket cut from Cameron’s uniform, alongside the first two batches of combat paper, provide something of a Combat Paper origin story. The booklet on the right documents Combat Paper activities at a university. Loaned by the Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of Illinois, and the Printmaking Center of New Jersey.
2 4
40 41 Fresh Press
Fresh Press is an agri-fiber papermaking as a more sustainable option. Paper was the lab on the Urbana-Champaign campus of overlap in our individual work and since every the University of Illinois. Founded by Eric discipline uses it, we felt we could find more Benson and Steve Kostell, it explores how collaborators. collaboration by farmers, artists, designers, This quickly came true. Zack Grant, and academics can revitalize a slowly dying manager of the University of Illinois Sus- manufacturing industry in the Midwest. tainable Student Farm (SSF), offered to let Materials made from agricultural (agri-) us use his agricultural land to grow prairie fiber, including agri-fiber waste, have -in grasses. The relationship attracted Illinois spired a vision of regional vitality and local architecture professor Jeff Poss, who tasked knowledge that can act as a catalyst for Mid- his graduate students to design and build western job creation. Agri-fiber materials cel- a temporary structure on the farm to provide ebrate regional people, culture, and wildlife. a place for everyone involved with Fresh Press They contribute to an economy that helps and the SSF to work. We call it the Wash & Pack keep our air and water clean, maintains our Pavilion. As we harvested and used the fibers forests, and preserves natural ecosystems. on the farm seasonally, we began calling our- Fresh Press aims to significantly reduce selves “the microbrewery of paper.” 1 3 the impact of greenhouse gas emissions by: Hopefully, our project is scalable, though • Providing local farmers an incentive this depends on corporate interest, and trans- to reduce carbon emissions caused by the portable to anywhere on the planet. We are burning of waste crops. using the art of hand papermaking to test fiber • Lessening emissions from the trans- qualities that eventually will be patented. This port of wood-pulp paper from forests to intellectual property will be licensed to the pulping mills to paper distributors. paper and pulp industries for use in packag- • Creating agri-fiber and wood-pulp ing and, potentially, commercial paper. Our blends by reusing campus office-paper waste, thought is that the pulp packaging industry negating around 47 percent of the carbon holds the greatest promise, as it can be more dioxide emissions typically produced by. flexible in its material choices than the com- virgin wood-pulp fiber paper. (Source: Alli- mercial paper industry, which requires preci- ance for Environmental Innovation) sion in the fiber lengths that pass through its In June 2014, Eric Benson described the machinery and sheet-forming processes. birth of and rationale behind Fresh Press to (www.mnn.com/money/sustainable-busi- Shea Gunther of the Mother Earth Network: ness-practices/blogs/theres-got-to-be-a-bet- In 2011, my colleague Steve Kostell and ter-way-to-turn-ag-waste-into-paper) I had a few hallway conversations between classes (and over some evening beers) about working together, as we were both at cross- 1–2. Images courtesy of Fresh Press. 2 3. Paper samples and fiber specimens. From left, Big roads in our academic careers. Steve, as a de- Blue Stem, corn, prairie grass, sunflower and signer and printmaker, had over a decade of switchgrass, 12 x 18 inches. experience with hand papermaking, while 4. We don’t push paper. Ink-jet on sunflower, 20 x 16 inches. my interest in paper came from evangelizing 5. Grow your own paper. Ink-jet on cotton, 20 x 16 4 5 on my website about alternative-fiber papers inches.
42 43 John Risseeuw PRINTS ON HANDMADE PAPER
For more than four decades John Risseeuw’s The twin purposes of this project have been 1. For Lim, 2002. Woodcut, polymer plate, and art has touched on themes that included public education to the problems of landmines letterpress on handmade paper in an edition of 27. Minas no mas, 2003. Letterpress, sandagraph, and political corruption, equal rights, environ- and fund-raising for the organizations that polymer relief on variable handmade paper in an mental abuse, fascism, war, and arms pro- assist their victims. Proceeds from the sale of edition of 35. liferation. His prints on handmade paper this work have been and will continue to be 2. Paper Landmine Project, 2001–2005. 3. Ten Kilograms, 2004. Letterpress, polymer relief, about landmines and the detritus of war donated to the Landmine Survivors Network, and woodcut on variable handmade paper in an have generated funds for organizations that the Cambodian Handicraft Association for edition of 31. assist landmine victims and work for land- Landmine and Polio Disabled, the Vietnam Bella, Bella, 2002. Letterpress, relief (polymer, woodcut, linocut, sandagraph), and inkjet print mine clearance in such countries as Cambo- Veterans of America Foundation, the Mines on handmade paper with stenciled pulp in an dia, Nicaragua, and Iraq. The prints in this Advisory Group’s Adopt-a-Minefield project, edition of 25. series began as a research project during a Handicap International and other organiza- 4. La Explosión, 2003. Woodcut, letterpress, polymer relief, and hand coloring on pulp-painted variable 2001 to 2002 sabbatical. tions that have helped me in my journey. handmade paper in an edition of 35. An important figure in the print and pa- permaking community, Risseeuw has been a strong influence on younger generations 2 of artists, including Drew Matott, Margaret Mahon, and Nick Dubois. The current project, Risseeuw wrote, involved making handmade paper and printing landmine images, facts, and stories of survi- vors and victims on it. In hand papermaking, we can make paper from used cotton, linen or silk clothing—rags—as well as plant fibers and other sources of cellulose. I have collect- ed articles of clothing from landmine victims (representative pieces of clothing—something a person wears or wore—not from the accident itself), fibrous plants from mine locations, and the currencies of nations that make or have made landmines. 4 All of this is pulped and made into the paper for my art. This body of work has roots in an earlier project from 1996, for which I made a piece about the world arms trade printed on paper made from clothing of victims of armed conflict mixed with the recycled currencies of the top ten arms exporting nations. As this piece was especially effective in creating an emotional connection with viewers, I have found that paper made from mine victims’ 1 3 clothing has been even more powerful.
44 45 Julia Goodman RAG SORTERS SERIES
Part of a larger body of work made in resi- dence at Recology San Francisco (a.k.a. The Dump), Rag Sorters is loosely based on the history of rag paper and moments when papermaking overlapped with a scarcity of material for pulp. Recology is a resource re- covery program that deals with municipal solid waste. Julia Goodman’s series looks at the re- lationship women have had with rag paper over the centuries, especially as providers of the fabrics used in its production. Inter- viewing a former Recology employee, she learned it was not until 1964, when com- pactor trucks began to be widely used, that the city’s garbage collectors stopped gath- ering rags for recycling. Prior to this, col- lected fabrics were brought to a room where female employees sorted them—a dirty and difficult job. Goodman learned the names of several of these women and replicated their process by sorting and pulping scavenged fabrics. Using elegant, pre-1964 fonts, Goodman 1 carved molds in the names of Rita Bianchi, Maria Tringale, and Josephine Grosso, then pressed pulped rags into her carvings to words would you be willing to pay $42.12 2 create a tribute. to share today? Creating pulp from cotton and linen rags To produce the works for Social Paper, ties the history of rag papermaking to the Goodman invited five participants to each story of reused materials and transforms contribute ten words, a handwriting sample, them into artworks. and an object around which to cast the paper. 164 Years in Between is a series of word- based, cast-paper pieces commissioned on 1–2. Rita Bianchi and Guissipina Calagri, Works from the Rag Sorters series (edition of 4). the occasion of Social Paper that referenc- handmade paper and mixed media, 2012–2013, es the crucial economy of words prevalent 9 ½ x 11 inches, 8 ½ x 12 ½ inches. during the era of telegraphic communica- 3. I love you know and forever, Lost shoes, karomio, and Try 35 weeks. Works from 164 Years in tion. In 1850, for $1.50 (equivalent to $42.12 Between (edition of 2). Handmade paper and today), one could send a ten-word telegraph mixed media, 7 ½ x 10 ½ inches. between New York and Chicago. In today’s sea of unlimited communication, Good- 3 man’s project asks its audience: What ten
46 47 Laura Anderson Barbata THE REPATRIATION OF JULIA PASTRANA
Born in 1834 in Sinaloa, Mexico, Julia Pastra- na was sold and exhibited across Europe as “The Ugliest Woman in the World.” Afflict- ed with generalized hypertrichosis lanugi- nosa and gingival hyperplasia, Pastrana’s jaw was large, and thick hair covered her face and body. To recover her dignity and rightful place in history, Laura Anderson Barbata worked for ten years to have Pas- trana’s remains repatriated from Oslo and given a Catholic burial in her hometown. The work included petitioning the univer- sity where her remains were held, soliciting the support of Mexican officials and, finally, identifying her remains in Oslo, Norway, before the coffin was sealed. Barbata’s role in burying Pastrana’s remains represents more than feminist advo- cacy. Her project encompassed art, memory, politics, science, justice, the law and, most important, human dignity. Pastrana was 1 2 buried with artworks that Barbata created with Columbia College Book and Paper MFA 1. Alex Borgen, Brett Brady, Heather Buechler, graduate Boo Gilder, Yanomami artist Shero- Kelly Schmidt, Amy Leners, Victoria Martinez, Valentina Vella. Works in handmade paper made anawë Hakihiiwë, and Assistant Professor during the workshop A Homecoming for Julia: Melissa Potter in the Columbia College Labor+Language, led by Laura Anderson Barbata Chicago papermaking studio, along with and Jillian Bruschera, Feb. 17-18, 2014. 2. Julia y Laura, 2013. C-Print on fiber paper in hand thousands of white flowers sent from around carved frame with silver leaf and black lacquer. the world. The burial was covered widely by Signed and numbered on the back of the print, international media outlets, including the 17 x 22 inches. 3. Selected photographs from the repatriation New York Times and National Public Radio. ceremony, Sinaloa, Mexico, Feb. 12, 2013 (courtesy The Social Paper exhibition featured a Laura Anderson Barbata). series of grave rubbings, an animated video and a photographic portrait of Pastrana drawn from an extensive body of artwork amassed over nearly ten years. Addition- ally, new works were generated in collabo- ration with Interdisciplinary Arts Depart- ment graduate students and community members in the workshop A Homecoming for Julia: Labor+Language. 3
48 49 Loreto Apilado & Trisha Martin THE GREAT WOMEN PROJECT
Trisha Martin was introduced to the Great Women Project by its facilitator, Filipino artist, hand papermaker, and conserva- tor Loreto Apilado, through a papermak- ing course in Columbia College Chicago’s Book and Paper MFA program. The Great Women Project (GWP) is a micro-industry initiative through which women produce and sell paper and other handmade products. Combining her Filipino heritage and growing interest in hand papermak- ing, Martin contacted Apilado and raised money to travel to the Philippines. There, she learned from local fiber farms to harvest paper mulberry, abaca, coconuts, and achute and, from Apilado, to cook and beat the fibers for papermaking. In exchange, Martin led artistic work- shops for the Women Project collective and helped the women expand their produc- tion capability. By the end of Martin’s res- idency, the women had created newly de- signed handmade paper, new paper cutout imagery, non-adhesive bindings, large-scale artworks, and beaded curtains. Throughout the process, the women understood they 2 were equal as artists and equally important to the success of their products. For the Social Paper exhibition, the 1 project built a structure modeled after a sari-sari store, a convenience or variety 1. store common in the Philippines, stocked squeezed, laughter, frustrations—to come Trisha Martin, Sari Sari Store, 2013. With toner, off-set and ink-jet printer ink, Liquid with handicrafts for sale. The sari-sari out a life masterpiece like this,” Apilado handmade paper products from the Hardin ng Paper, permanent pigment ink and permanent Kalikasan Women’s Multi-Purpose Cooperative, also featured designs created during work- wrote. She continued ,“The women/collab- markers, laser-print and fax machine toners, Designed and fabricated with Brent Koehn, ball-point pens, hard pastels, pencils, cotton shops at the Hardin ng Kalikasan Women’s orators learn techniques but I encourage Dimensions variable. thread, PVA glue, contact cement and double- 2. Multi-Purpose Cooperative in Quezon. them to share what they feel and how they Loreto D. Apilado (a.k.a. LorEto D.A.), Gender & adhesive tape. Handmade papers were created Green. 2013, Artist’s wall book, 15 x 20.5 inches. A handmade artist’s book by Apilado influence their work. This artist’s wall book in Barangay Kiloloron, Real, Quezon Province; Mixed media, including abaca, abaca twine Albay in the Bicol Region; and in Marikina City documented the Great Women Project, is a calendar format and uses handmade and abaca fiber, kozo and kozo black bark (chiri), (Metro Manila). The book was hand bound at including its history and impact. “Gender paper made from materials abundant in banana, coconut husk and fiber, cogon grass with the Cottage Industry Technology Center, SSS bakbak, fossilized leaves, natural and synthetic & Green (women and the environment) is their village, new fiber I introduced like Village, Marikina City, Dec. 2013. inclusions of direct-dyed pulp, machine-made 3. Artists on display. more than an art on end but the means—a kozo, and some of my earliest paper collec- paper, fax paper, photo paper, slides, rono reeds, 3 creative journey with so much creative juice tion (the cover).” bamboo, color and black-and-white photocopying
50 51 The Parents Circle–Families Forum FABRIC OF WAR
Fabric of War brought together twenty be- reaved Palestinian and Israeli women to make paper from materials associated with the conflict and those they lost. All were members of the Parents Circle-Families Forum (PCFF). Many used possessions they had kept for years — a mother’s prayer shawl taken on pilgrimage to Mecca shortly before she died, black mourning clothes worn for a year after a husband’s death, and letters, diaries, photographs, and obituaries. Togeth- er, the women transformed their materials into a fabric of shared experience, creating a work that tells their stories and speaks their hope for change. The PCFF, a community of more than six hundred Palestinian and Israeli families who have lost immediate relations to the conflict, promotes reconciliation through dialogue and mutual understanding. Through a wide range of programs, the families help each 1 side understand the personal and national narratives of the other. A primary goal is to enable Palestinians and Israelis to meet in encounters that will, for many, be their first with members of the “other side.” Participants described the paper made 3 during Fabric of War as “a silent testimony amid the words and walls that seek to divide us.” As a symbol of their work together, it demonstrates the power of personal encoun- ters in creating a space where new narratives can be conceived. —Nick Dubois
1. Creating group works 2. Samira A’Alamy, Beit Ummar, Palestine, in memory of her son 3. Each participant’s statement was transcribed in Arabic, Hebrew and English
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52 53 Parnassus Paper NICK DUBOIS
Parnassus Paper brought together fourteen poets from seven Balkan countries, many from states once part of the former Yugosla- via, at the Polip International Poetry Festival 2012 in Prishtina, Kosovo. A collaboration between Kosovar and Serbian cultural groups, Insulators have melted down the festival’s premise was the power of poetry we are but naked wires to transcend borders. Each poet combined a under the voltage poem with a sheet of handmade paper with of a stressful working day embedded objects in place of a title. During the festival, handmade paper Forces of magnetic fields was also made for a unique autograph sketch fantastic edition of The World Record, a volume of indigo auras around our heads global poetry commemorating London which we attribute to hypermnesia. Southbank Centre’s 2012 Poetry Parnassus, which brought together poets from every In our heads endless repetitions country represented at the Olympic Games. 2 of ones and zeros: Kosovo, the only state missing from the the programming language Olympics, due to its exclusion for political of imperialism in metastasis. reasons, was incorporated into The World Record through the paper on which it was 1. Lindita Arapi, Albania We communicate in kilobytes handwritten by the poets. 2. Dragana Mladenović, Serbia a prayer trapped in a net: 3. Olja Savičević, Croatia Parnassus Paper drew inspiration from we justify our slavery Fabric of War, undertaken two years earlier with the impulse of yet more with the Parents Circle—Families Forum, a digital money. grassroots organization of bereaved Palestin- ians and Israelis, and from the work of Drew Enes Kurtović Matott and Drew Cameron who who were Bosnia-Herzegovina Parnassus Paper’s papermakers. Symbolizing absence, the papers made in the Balkans and the Middle East also embody journeys, en- counters, and the images traced from them. Back home. In March and April, 2014, the Poetry I roll over. Foundation in Chicago hosted an exhibi- Kiss the wall. tion of the autograph edition of The World Dragana Mladenović Record. This inspired the creation of The Serbia Chicago 77, a Poetry Foundation project conceived in collaboration with Nick Dubois, involving papermakers Drew Matott and 1 3 Margaret Mahan.
54 55 Peace Paper Project
The Peace Paper Project provides trauma survivors and others the opportunity to transform articles of clothing into works of art that broadcast stories, understanding, and healing. The project does this through artist-led hand papermaking workshops, and writing, book, and printmaking activities. For co-founder Drew Matott, Peace Paper represents a deeper, more formal engage- ment with art therapy than the Combat Paper Project he founded in 2007. Peace Paper includes artists, art therapists, and teachers from across the country. One of their core activities is Panty Pulping, which brings together the survivors of sexual and domestic violence to “share their strengths and joy through the transformation of their most intimate garments into paper 2 art,” a collective activity the project says promotes “consent, non-violence, and cre- ative expressions of resilience through hand papermaking.” Artists Drew Matott and Margaret Mahan have created a continuing series of works, Riots, Revolts and Revolutions, in re- sponse to uprisings in places where they have 1 held workshops. Personal extensions of the artists’ creative pedagogy, their works refer- 1. Peace Paper workshop in Istanbul. ence such notables as Pakistani schoolgirl 2. Margaret Mahan, Femen, 2013. Pulp print on Malala Yousafzai and the dissident Russian handmade paper, From the series, Riots, Revolts band Pussy Riot using paper made from and Revolutions, 23½ x 57 inches. 3. Drew Matott, London Riots, 2013. Pulp print on various sources, including underwear, handmade paper. From the series, Riots, Revolts Current and recent Peace Paper Project and Revolutions, 23½ x 57 inches. collaborators include Drew Matott, Marga- ret Mahan, Gretchen Miller, Janice Havlena, Amy Richard, Allie Horton, Claire Reynes, Johnny La Falce, and Malachi Muncy. 3
56 57 Eileen Foti A RIPPLE IN THE WATER
Eileen Foti’s film, A Ripple in the Water: Healing Through Art, documents the social activism of Kim Berman, a member of South Africa’s anti-apartheid movement who used papermaking, printmaking, and embroi- dery to empower and mobilize thousands of South African women and children afflicted by HIV/AIDS and rampant poverty. Founder of the Artist Proof Studio in Johannesburg, Berman made the film in 2007. It was fea- tured in Columbia College Chicago’s Social Paper exhibition. In 2000, Berman initiated Phumani Paper, a national poverty relief project that includes a significant research and training component. Based at the University of Jo- hannesburg, Phumani Paper is a papermak- ing and crafts organization active in more than fifteen sites across South Africa. The National Research Foundation at the Uni- versity of Johannesburg funded it to study converting agricultural waste into paper and to establish a Papermaking Research 1 3 and Development Unit. The development
unit was linked to a government call for 1. Beating fiber at Cloe Sisal Project. anti-poverty proposals that could create 2. Houses in Ivory Park, South Africa. jobs using plant waste. As a result, Phumani 3. Cooking fiber at Khomanani Project . 4. Papermaker at Lebone Project. Paper enterprises were established in rural and urban poverty nodes where they trained local crafters and artists in papermaking. Phumani Paper continues to create new handcrafted paper enterprises in the poorest areas of the country, among commu- nities severely affected by unemployment and serious health factors.
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58 59 Maggie Puckett THE BIG HERE: CHICAGO
The idea that an artist might be more inter- ested in the production of “affect,” or a zone of meaningful relations than a perfectly realized aesthetic form or object seems an- tithetical to the objectives of most paper artists, who are often identified as highly skilled craft people and fetishists of tooth, surface and pigment. In his book, Living as Form, Nato Thompson asserts that socially engaged art defies “discursive boundaries, its very flexible nature reflects an interest in producing affects in the world rather than focusing on the form itself.” Maggie Puck- ett’s work embodies Thompson’s interest in activism, participation, and the intersection of art and public life through the production of alternatives that demonstrate a DIY ethos. Maggie Puckett’s The Big Here: Chicago, 2 shown as a participatory event at the
Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago and 1–2. The Big Here, 2014. Artist’s book and as an installation in the exhibition Social participatory installation. Thirty-five questions Paper, is a set of thirty-five questions, de- on handmade paper designed to test and increase viewers’ ecological awareness. Visitors were signed to test and increase ecological aware- encouraged to write or draw answers directly on ness based on a concept by naturalist Peter the installation. Warshall. Puckett’s questions appear on 3. Total Ocean Recall, 2010. Artist’s book, handmade paper with ink and colored pencil handmade papers selected to emphasize drawings by community members; drum leaf visual content. binding, 96 pages, 8.5 x 11 inches. Ultimately, sheets from The Big Here: Chicago were bound into a codex book, similar to Puckett’s earlier project, Total Ocean Recall, which began as a participa- tory drawing installation at Version Fest in Chicago and is now housed in an under- graduate teaching collection at St. Ambrose University.
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60 61 Taller Intensive Libro y Papel PORE AWË
The book Pore Awë was realized in the summer of 2011 using an innovative artis- tic model conceived by the artist Álvaro González and the curator Tahia Rivero of Fundación Mercantil in Caracas, Venezuela. Supported by the Taller de Artes Gráficas and the Caracas-based Instituto de Estudios Avanzados, Rivero selected ten of Vene- zuela’s top visual artists for a four-week intensive workshop to create a collabora- tive artist book. The workshop challenged the roles of paper and books in contemporary artis- tic practice by presenting the artists with media they had never before used. Pore Awë features creative interpretations of the story of Pore Awë, or “plaintain man,” and how the Spanish introduced the staple crop to the Yanomami people. The book was 1 constructed of sisal, daphne, and handmade cotton paper the artists produced. Columbia College Book and Paper graduate students Haley Nagy and Maggie Puckett worked with Sheroanawë Haki- hiwë to teach hand papermaking and to develop an innovative book structure that would embody the spirit of the story. It was 3 an intense collaborative experiment, and the artists spent long hours discussing the boundary between community and indi- vidual artistic engagement.
1–3. Cover, title page and illustration, Pore Awë: sisal and Amazon fiber, handmade paper, and etching.
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62 63 Kiff Slemmons PAPER JEWELRY AT ARTE PAPEL
Fine jewelry was produced by hand paper- The young women at Arte Papel know all about makers at Arte Papel Vista Hermosa, a co-op ex votos. One day, I suggested we make a neck- near Oaxaca, Mexico, at the site of an aban- lace that included all of us and illustrated the doned hydroelectric plant in San Agustin Etla. conceptual depth possible in paper jewelry. Kiff Slemmons has been working with We talked about milagros, how they are used the co-op’s artisans in residencies and work- as requests and wishes or as gratitudes for re- shops since 2000 on numerous designs, quests fulfilled, and how the necklace could relying on their expertise about such pa- be a kind of offering of what our project was permaking materials as majahua, chichi- about. I asked each of us to write on five cutout catzli and pochote for their fibrous pulp, and pieces our wishes, and thank-yous on another cochineal, indigo, and other vegetables and five pieces. They took this very seriously and minerals for vibrant dyes. we wrote in silence (unusual for most of our The paper, handmade out of local renew- working time) and concentration for nearly able fibers, is cut, folded, inked, and wrapped an hour. Then we rolled the papers into the to make jewelry that is sold to support the beads we used for many jewelry designs. I was co-op. The project builds on the vision of responsible for stringing the beads in the form Arte Papel founder, artist Francisco Toledo, of the necklace called Milagros. Milagros are who wanted the atelier to revive the pre-Co- often also worn for good luck and protection. lumbian tradition of making paper from We hoped to protect the livelihood of Arte Papel. natural fibers. We repeated the process a few months ago and Combat Paper, the Peace Paper Project, made two more necklaces. This proved a good 1 2 and Nick Dubois (Poetry Parnassus) all use way to reconnect, to work together even within short-term workshop models. Slemmons’ a short time. 1–3. Photos by Rod Slemmons. fifteen-year engagement at Arte Papel to The project has evolved with complicated make jewelry, and the Great Women Project and nuanced layers of collaboration,” Slem- in the Philippines, both use a longer-term mons wrote. “Working together contradicts micro-industry model, as seen in the Social assumptions of culture, of authenticity and Paper exhibition. They also demonstrate synthesis and invigorates cross pollination. what Professor Gail Deery and Hand Paper- After working for two and three week stints making editor Mina Takahashi described in over the years, I started to think as an artist 1993 as papermaking’s ability to become an about what we had to say about paper, its ca- “ever growing tool of economic development.” pacity for simplicity and elaboration, for struc- In cross-cultural projects an artist ture and design and for countering assump- engages in over time, it is important for tions about durability and the ephemeral . . . . the artist to work “productively within . . . The spirit of invention in unusual circumstanc- traditions,” while maintaining some dis- es with limited but focused resources would not tance from them. While Slemmons credits have happened without the combined effort individuals in Arte Papel with some of her and skills of all of us. strongest jewelry designs, she acknowledg- es her relationship with its members devel- —KIFF SLEMMONS oped over time and that mutual trust was 3 not instantaneous.
64 65 The People’s Library
Initiated by Cortney Bowles and Mark Each new People’s Library project The People’s Library champions col- Paper out of pulped drafts of faculty labor Strandquist, the People’s Library is a collab- begins with free and public papermaking lective production as an avenue for face- union contracts and letters. Participants orative project featuring libraries designed, workshops at which deaccessioned books to-face interaction among diverse publics. honored the lives of under-appreciated la- built, and authored by community members. are transformed into blank, handmade Its workshops, which are free and open to borers by sewing their names onto sheets, The project repurposes discarded books into paper. The pages are then sewn and bound anyone, are made possible by members later to be bound into a codex book, while blank canvasses for the production and ex- into the covers of old books, using all parts of the People’s Librarians, the project’s discussing the continuing labor disputes at change of local histories. of the books, and transforming old histo- youth mentorship program, which brings the University of Illinois at Chicago campus. Beginning in January 2013 at the Main ries into a medium for recording new ones. together college and high school students. Branch of the Richmond Public Library, a By blurring art, education, and community Workshop participants complete the tasks 1. Installation view. 2. Community authored books, courtesy the thousand blank books were created for activism, the project becomes a platform necessary to build the books, engage in Richmond Public Library. anyone in the community to check out, bring for freely sharing skills while realizing conversation, and explore creative, social, 3. Illustration courtesy of the People’s Library. home, fill with their histories, and return to alternative modes of personal engage- and educational skills. The project reflects 4. The People’s Library, Tactical Weaving: Textiles, Labor, and Community Activism, Jane Addams the library to be added to the permanent col- ment. The resulting installation becomes the histories, needs, and desires of local Hull House, University of Illinois at Chicago, lection. Through a series of workshops, partic- a meeting place for alienated publics that residents, while reinterpreting public in- March, 2014 ipants learned creative skills while engaging offers sustainable, collective, and critical stitutions as spaces for production, med- with each other and their public institutions alternatives for the form and function of itation, and alternative education. in new and generative ways. public art. “We hope the books constitute a thou- sand micro monuments,” wrote Bowles and Strandquist, that become “real and 2 symbolic meeting places for alienated publics,” while offering “sustainable, col- lective and critical alternatives for the form and function of public art.” Bowles and Strandquist say others frequently ask for their help in setting up their own People’s Libraries. As a result, the project moves beyond being a local gesture into the territory of having a real impact in other communities. As the curator Nato Thompson writes, “cultural practices in- dicate a new social order—ways of life that emphasize participation, challenge power, and span disciplines.” As the Combat Paper project has spread, so has the People’s Library, with 3 4 new branches sprouting in other cities, including Chicago and Philadelphia. During the Social Paper exhibition, the People’s Library facilitated a sewing circle at Jane Addams’ Hull House at the Univer- sity of Illinois at Chicago. The circle used 1 paper created at the Center for Book and
66 67 Bibliography
A selected bibliography of SOCIALLY ENGAGED ART HAND PAPERMAKING CRAFT THEORY publications and resource materials Doherty, Claire. Situation. London: MIT Jacob, Mary Jane and Kate Zeller, eds. Hand Papermaking, Turner, Silvie and Birgit Skield. Handmade Sorkin, Jennifer M. Live Form: Gender included in a special reading area of Press, 2009. Chicago Social Practice History Series. www.handpapermaking.org Paper Today. London: Lund Humphries and the Performance of Craft, 1940–1970. the Social Paper exhibition. Allen, Felicity. Education. London: MIT Chicago: School of the Art Institute of Barrett, Timothy, and Winifred Lutz. Publishers, 1983. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2010. Press, 2011. Chicago, 2014. Japanese Papermaking: Traditions, Berman, Kim, Jane Hassinger, and Susan Adamson, Glenn, ed. The Craft Reader. Social Paper featured a reading and resource Lacy, Suzanne. Mapping the Terrain: Bishop, Claire. Artificial Hells: Participatory Tools, and Techniques. New York: Sellschop. 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68 69 SOCIAL PAPER Hand Papermaking in the Context of Socially Engaged Art
EDITED BY Jessica Cochran and Melissa Potter
ESSAYS BY Jillian Bruschera, Jessica Cochran, Gail Deery, Stuart Keeler, Melissa Potter, and Jenni Sorkin
No text or illustration may be used or reproduced without written permission.
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 0-929911-55-5
Published in 2015
Epicenter Center for Book and Paper Arts at Columbia College Chicago 1104 South Wabash Avenue Chicago, Illinois 60605-2328, U.S.A. colum.edu/bookandpaper
FUNDED BY Clinton Hill / Allen Tran Foundation, Center for Craft Creativity and Design, the Rubin Fund, Art+Activism at Columbia College Chicago, and the Illinois Arts Council, a State Agency