#24 October 10th (3D ARTIST)

We discussed Donovan's work in class, but I wanted to look into her more because I absolutely fell head over heals for her work when Laurie showed us Donovan's piece with paper plates. Round, repetitious, delicate, clean, expansive, abundant and lush are words that come to mind when I see her work.

great article on her here (NY Times).

Ms. Donovan, 38, who recently won a $500,000 MacArthur Foundation “genius” award, has drawn attention over the last decade for her ability to transform huge quantities of prosaic manufactured materials — plastic-foam cups, pencils, tar paper — into sculptural installations that suggest the wonders of nature. The retrospective will include many of the works that made her name, like the series “Bluffs” (2006), which she created by gluing hundreds of thousands of clear shirt buttons together into craggy peaks that recall white coral reefs or stalagmites.

To construct “Untitled (Plastic Cups)” (2006), which must be freshly built each time it is shown, she stacks millions of transparent plastic cups in a tight, rigorous grid and sculptures the swaying piles into gentle waves that suggest a cross-section of a pixilated landscape. (Like much of her work, it can be expanded or contracted to fit the space.)

“Nebulous,” an installation Ms. Donovan first created in 2002, initially brings to mind an expanse of translucent moss or a bank of fog hovering near the floor. It is built with 100 rolls of Scotch Tape, Magic and Invisible. (The Institute recently acquired a variant of the piece for its permanent collection.)











Tara Donovan