Blossfeldt's Apprentice
The images are of objects hand made out of twist ties*. They attempt to recreate plant structures that are shown in iconic photographs by the German artist Karl Blossfeldt (1920’s).
Karl Blossfeldt (1865-1932), a German Art professor, wanted to encourage his students to pay attention. He made a camera that allowed magnification of up to 30x and took hundreds of photos of plant forms. He was demonstrating that the best design had already been anticipated in nature.
I pored over his images and became a latter day student – twisting, tying and bending the material to my will. My imperfect specimens taunted me with their limitations. But embracing the flaws became the point of the work and showing the joins and loose threads reveals the tension between perfection and imperfection.
*A twist tie is a metal wire that is encased in a thin strip of plastic and is used to tie the openings of bags, such as garbage or bread bags