American artist Tara Donovan is known for her innovative use of mundane materials, and her latest exhibition at the Pace Gallery in New York City doesn’t disappoint. We’ve previously seen her form styrofoam cups into a giant undulating cloud and create massive mineral rocks out of mylar film. Now, the artist has sculpted several million glued-together 3″ x 5″ index cards to look like stalagmites that you’d see in a cave.
The eight larger-than-life structures make up a site-specific installation that was created through the accumulating of identical objects. Donovan manipulates them by stacking and angling the their corners, formatting the cards into a tactile, jagged-edge columnar objects. They look like organic forms from a distance, and it’s incredible that she’s able to fool our eyes into thinking so. This impressive and encompassing display encourages us to reconsider the difference between the banal and grandiose.
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