It Takes Something of Extreme Beauty
to Render Me Speechless
By Dayna Spinner
In an unusual turn, I am at a loss for words. It takes something of extreme beauty to render this normally verbose girl speechless, and here is just such a series of work by artist Peter Gentenaar. But I’ve been struggling for descriptive language for 3 days now and for the purpose of sharing his art with you, I’ll plug along and give it my best shot. The process involved in creating these stunning floating objects is pretty darn cool. He mills his own paper, using long fibers, then buttresses the paper using flexible bamboo rods. As the paper dries, it shrinks about 40%, causing the bamboo to bend and curve. While this certainly makes each finished piece a bit of a surprise, it should be noted that he has to have a deep understanding for how the bamboo will bend depending on where and how he attaches the rods to the paper, as many of these shapes are quite deliberate. OK, now that the technical reference is finished, let me just say that his works, displayed in a French abbey church and monastery in honor of the 25th edition of the festival of classical music of St. Riquier, remind me of watered silk blowing around in the wind, or drifting in underwater currents. It reminds me of the floating and twisting essence of dancers using veils. I want to stand under them and walk around them, and observe them from every possible angle. But in the end, I still feel that whatever I could say about these works is paltry at best. They really speak for themselves.
(via livingtoseayou)
