American artist Tara Donovan uses all kinds of everyday household items, like plastic cups, No. 2 pencils, or drinking straws, to create her visually complicated and surprisingly complex sculptures. She doesn’t start with a design but, rather, chooses to start with the object and let the material emerge organically into the end result. She says, “In a sense, I develop a dialogue with each material that dictates the forms that develop. With every new material comes a specific repetitive action that builds the work.”
Organized clusters of styrofoam cups held together with hot glue are the basis for this piece called Styrofoam Cup Sculpture. The undulating clouds of synthetic material, spanning twenty feet wide and six feet high, absorb and diffuse the light in beautiful patterns that hang overhead. The Brooklyn-based artist considers each piece to be only a temporary, site-specific construction. When visiting an installation, viewers will find themselves surrounded by a powerful artwork that challenges us to reconsider the basic functions of these everyday materials and to see them in a new light.
Tara Donovan on Ace Gallery
via [My Eclectic Depiction of Life]