Projects: crepe paper icebergs in hot pink and ice blue

Photo: Paul Litherland

In 2003 I re-used the patterns I had made for the wallpaper icebergs to make a new installation out of crepe paper for the "Salon Ecarlatte" exhibition (curated by Lauren Nurse & Maria Chronopolous) in Montreal. This series, installed in a shop front window was titled Crepe paper icebergs fading in the sun. The icebergs later traveled to New York for the "Tag team" art and multiples exhibition at the Tank Gallery.

Popular colours used to dye crepe papers, such as hot pink and ice blue, are notoriously fugutve, often fading in direct light in time spans as short as a week. Fugitive colour aside, crepe paper is a fun material to use, its versatility and flexibility have made it popular for a variety of craft projects and applications. High quality crepe's are made by the classic stationery company claire fontaine (www.clairefontaine.com) The Clairefontaine paper mill was established in 1858, in Etival in the Vosges mountains. Best known for their envelopes and machine stitched exercise books, Clairefontaine also produces a wide range of fine art and craft materials.

Also operating under the rubric Clairefontaine is an artist collective based in Paris. "Claire Fontaine is a Paris-based collective, founded in 2004. After lifting her name from a popular brand of school notebooks, Claire Fontaine declared herself a "readymade artist" and began to elaborate a version of neo-conceptual art that often looks like other people's work. Working in neon, video, sculpture, painting and text, her practice can be described as an ongoing interrogation of the political impotence and the crisis of singularity that seem to define contemporary art today." (www.clairefontaine.ws) A catalogue chronicling the activities of the Clairefontaine collective is forthcoming from les Editions La Fabrique, Paris. (www.lafabrique.fr/)