Folding Sculpture

    You do not touch art.
    You do not play with art.
    You do not fold art.

    My series of Folding Sculpture encourages you do all of the above. In my series of Folding Sculpture I intend to push the envelope that defines sculpture and painting. With this series I am taking the painting out of the frame and taking the sculpture off its pedestal. I combine them in new ways. You then manipulate the piece, exploring its possibilities, and perhaps finding something pleasing, leave it in a particular state for others to view. You may change your mind and rearrange the piece as often as you like. It is a sculpture that can be different every time you look at it.
    One might say that the folded sculpture is in a state of rest. It might reside on a desk, table or a shelf in this state of rest and be a nice little piece of art or décor. A casual visitor wouldn’t suspect its hidden dimensions. Human touch awakens this inert form and discoveries unfold. Pick it up and it’s eager to play.
We’ve been trained, for obvious reasons, to keep our hands off the paintings and sculptures. This series breaks down the barrier between the art and the viewer because one must manipulate the piece in order to appreciate it. Sometimes that manipulation itself is a pleasing sensory experience. Not only is the viewer now touching the sculpture, they are changing it! Normally, even if you own the piece of art, you can’t change it without diminishing its value. This series of sculptures encourages play and exploration, and in the end, makes the owner of the piece, in a sense, a collaborator with the artist. The owner of the piece always has final say on what it will look like.
Is it art or is it a toy? Does it have to be one or the other? Can it be both? I think it is just as much one as the other. It is a toy for an imagination more mature than a child’s. This is real interactive art; nothing virtual about it.
Some pieces simply fold and unfold, providing only few interesting states in the process. Others have many, perhaps infinite, aesthetically pleasing states in the process. Each piece folds in a different way. In addition, each one explores some aspect of what defines a sculpture. With some pieces the main event is in the hands. These are like three-dimensional kaleidoscopes continually changing as you manipulate the piece. Some unfold to a double-sided flat painting. Half unfolded, half of each painting is visible. Fully unfolded, only one of the paintings can be seen at a time. This playing-with-the-object provides an interesting tactile experience for the hands and an interesting exploration for the eyes while engaging the mind. Lastly, these folding sculptures, by their very nature being as compact as they can be, travel well. Many of them would fit in a briefcase.
Part of the exploration of a piece is when the manipulation stops and a visual appreciation of the object begins. Now the painting covering the surface of the object comes into play. The painting wraps around the surface of the object. The way the lights and shadows change the nature of the colors and patterns.Some can be folded and unfolded in ways that recombine different parts of the painted surface. This can’t happen on a flat painting.
The creation of these pieces is partially an engineering exercise and partially an aesthetic one. That’s something that appeals to me. It gives both sides of my brain a good workout. Each time I think I’ve exhausted the possibilities of this series, I make new discoveries; new ways to fold things.
You can see some of my folding sculptures and paintings on my web site, and some others on my YouTube channel.