Molly Martin, “Installation Detail,” Laser Cut and Folded Paper
One might be hesitant to hop in the car and bee line for the Pickens County Art Museum after reading a short synopsis of their current “Rock, Paper, Scissor” exhibit. Reasonably enough, it’s hard to get fired up over a “sundry mix of paper art” by 13 regional artists.
But don’t be fooled. Travel deep into the heart of Pickens County – and don’t keep driving straight on through to Greenville – and be rewarded with several surprising gems.
The concept was thought up by the museum’s executive director, Alan Coleman.
“It’s an idea I’ve been thinking about for a couple years,” he said. “I started looking at paper as a medium instead of the support for the medium.”
Barbara Yon’s “Kubuki Player” presents a texturally diverse, layered paper collage that at first glance appears as if she has produced a bizarre mixed-media piece. Resting on a background of what looks like wood slat, paper with a cotton consistency holds pieces and cuts of paper representative of 17th century Japanese art – Japanese characters and the face of a dancer, for example. Like the art it represents, the piece is elaborate, but differs in that it is far from stylized. Yon incorporates Eastern rice papers she accumulated from friends and visits to Far Eastern nations, juxtaposing them with clippings from magazines and other low-grade paper.
Another success in paper collages lies in Judy Z. Verhoeven’s “Bird on Yellow Pebbles.”
Tamao Chrysler, “American Flag” Handmade Folded Paper
Like in Yon’s piece, the textural element, particularly in the yellow pebbles, makes an immediate impression. The vividness of the yellow and blue and blue sky also hold the eye, but the piece would still be a little boring were it not for the bird. With its black, geometric feathers and rough figure, it seems more like something out of Poe’s imagination than what you might find perched on some pebbles near the banks of Lake Hartwell.
Whether intentionally or not, it balances the piece and provides an almost dreamlike and unsettling quality.
Perhaps the most unorthodox approach to the exhibit comes from Molly Morin’s “Mapping (Internet Social Networks),” a large, site specific installation composed of four units.
Designed on a computer program similar to CAD, large sheets of paper with light lines guide where she draws and folds, finishing with what she describes as “DIY Reliquaries.”
And what would a paper art show be without origami? Japanese artist Tamao Chrysler, known for work in other mediums, contributes several colorful, intricate pieces to the show.
The “rock” part of “Rock, Paper, Scissor” is the work of sculptor and Bob Jones University professor Dave Appleman, whose style is simplistic and organic, and often includes smaller pedestal work.
“Like many semi-abstract sculptors, he lets what’s in the stone come out,” Coleman said.
The exhibit runs through Nov.17. For more information call (864) 898-5963.
