2015 MCBA Prize Entries

Barbara Tetenbaum, “Diagram of Wind”

tetenbaum1
Cover of box view

tetenbaum-2
Overview

tetenbaum-3
Detail

tetenbaum-4
Detail

tetenbaum-5
Detail

 

 
Barbara Tetenbaum (Portland, OR)

Diagram of Wind
2015
Letterpress printed texts and images cut into strips and adhered to Japanese ‘silk tissue’ (gampi). Sewn to cloth and wood backing. Supported by a wood wave-form platform and held inside a lidded box made of cloth and book board. Poem by Michael Donaghy: “Glass”.
Edition of 30
10 pages
17 x 10 x 3

This project represents a three-year investigation of wave forms, and illustrated using articulated paper pages, poetry and other writing. The pages are constructed using Japanese silk tissue (gampi) as a backing for the adhered paper strips. I uses a variety of spaces when collaging to create different sounds and tensions when the viewer turned the pages.

I chose Michael Donaghy’s poem ‘Glass’ because it has a rhythm that mimics wave action (it is a sistina, a form which uses repetitive word endings) and provided the title for the project in the line “a meteorologists diagram of wind”.

I layered this poem with other pages that support and illustrate my underlying concept. Some pages are collaged in such a way to create a distinct sound or tension, other pages contain texts about wave action in nature and industry, others contain images. The pages are sewn to a cloth and wood backing which can be lifted up and hung on the wall, or left to rest on the undulating wood platform.