Imagine a ceiling covered in Styrofoam cups assembled together so intricately and catching the light so meticulously that the material used looks far more advanced than an everyday manufactured item. Imagine a giant cube of toothpicks being held together by just the weight of the other surrounding toothpicks, causing it to be so fragile and vulnerable yet so sturdy at the same time. Imagine a plethora of metal Slinky’s intertwined and entangled in such a way it looks as though they are wrestling with themselves while still supporting the entirety of itself. Tara Donovan, an artist from the east coast, has spent the last two decades creating these structures and many like them. Donovan, who was born and raised in New York, is a well-established
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The ability to create a piece that is so large-scale and unrecognizable of the original material is amazing. With one of her pieces within her Untitled series, Donovan created many large, narrow structures made entirely out of index cards stacked on top of each other (1.4). Without being aware of what she used, from a distance, the likelihood one would be able to identify the materials is quite small. Her work requires you to stop and think about the material she chose and why. It makes you stand in awe and wonder how she was able to put it together the way she did and what natural pattern she is …show more content…
My initial impression was amazement due to the amount of surface area it covered and how I thought it closely resembled a coral like structure from the ocean or a very large bee hive. Throughout all of her pieces, I consistently made an initial connection between her work and some form nature or natural pattern. For example, her piece involving toothpicks from her Untitled series (1.6) is a decent sized cubed made entirely out of toothpicks and resembles a bale of hay. Another piece, in which Donovan used hundreds and hundreds of plastic cups (1.7) could be viewed as an aerial view of snowy mountains. My initial impression is not different than my impression of her work after thorough research due to the fact she purposely follows biomorphic themes and patterns and that is what I initially saw. However, upon realizing her materials and design process, I did grow more admiration for Donovan’s
The ability to create a piece that is so large-scale and unrecognizable of the original material is amazing. With one of her pieces within her Untitled series, Donovan created many large, narrow structures made entirely out of index cards stacked on top of each other (1.4). Without being aware of what she used, from a distance, the likelihood one would be able to identify the materials is quite small. Her work requires you to stop and think about the material she chose and why. It makes you stand in awe and wonder how she was able to put it together the way she did and what natural pattern she is …show more content…
My initial impression was amazement due to the amount of surface area it covered and how I thought it closely resembled a coral like structure from the ocean or a very large bee hive. Throughout all of her pieces, I consistently made an initial connection between her work and some form nature or natural pattern. For example, her piece involving toothpicks from her Untitled series (1.6) is a decent sized cubed made entirely out of toothpicks and resembles a bale of hay. Another piece, in which Donovan used hundreds and hundreds of plastic cups (1.7) could be viewed as an aerial view of snowy mountains. My initial impression is not different than my impression of her work after thorough research due to the fact she purposely follows biomorphic themes and patterns and that is what I initially saw. However, upon realizing her materials and design process, I did grow more admiration for Donovan’s