Circle & totem movement in cardboard Sculpture.

The making of Circle totem movement in cardboard sculpture came about because of our recent move. When you move, you use a lot of cardboard boxes. With all this cardboard around and the fact that the move meant a smaller work area and limited access to machines, I decided to use cardboard as a medium for this series of sculptures. All I would need is a cutter and glue.

The material

While cardboard is not as forgiving as wax (which is what I used for my previous sculptures), I have been able to manipulate the cardboard to achieve the forms and textures that I envisaged.

The cardboard offers another strong and important statement, it is recycled material.
I have sealed the piece with a lacquer to prevent it from being destroyed by water, however the idea that nature can destroy it and it is not that permanent is an interesting and rather conflicting notion.

Method

The forms started out as drawings on cardboard that were then cut out, formed and added to or model with paper mache. (I used an ad-hoc type of paper mache which consisted of toilet paper soaked in a bit of water with glue)

The circles are toilet paper roles cut and added to the main totem. They grow out of the central stem. The composition is almost tree like in that the three stems extend from a common base.

As with my painting, the forms and texture are imaginary mountains, rocks, trees or cloud like forms and the sculptures are a combination of these forms and textures that express worlds or places imaged. The different textures accentuate areas and draw one to touch it. With this, the first in a series of cardboard sculptures, I have left the naked cardboard and the glue colour which gives the sculpture a bone like colour texture and feel.