August 18, 2009

The nature of paper

Posted by Kathleen Turaski

I find Steven Siegel's artistic depiction of the life cycle of newsprint especially engaging and clever.

"To See Jennie Smile," a piece on display in the sculpture garden at the North Carolina Museum of Art, uses two trees as structural posts to hold together a towering stack of several tons of old newspapers.

Because the papers will slowly disintegrate, the installation is an organic, ever-changing commentary about man-made elements and their natural origins. And because the papers are literally made from trees, the sculpture feels just right within this wooded, natural landscape.

I enjoy the artist’s intention of returning these newspapers, these altered trees, to their native environment. That his sculpture resembles a tree is intentional. But the real beauty of the art is that his “tree” has just as much of a life cycle as the natural ones that surround it.

TO SEE JENNIE SMILE: This "tree" brings newsprint back to its original environment.