Su Blackwell
Book Sculpture for ‘The Baron in the Trees’ (details)
circa 2011
A skill and talent like that of this artist is undeniable, even when studying only a detail of one of her works. For this paper sculpture, Blackwell reveals fragments of Italo Calvino’s storyline based on how willing one is to simply stop and stare (which with this work is only too easy to do). Though some of the shapes created from the book’s pages are easily recognisable as, say, the ladder or the pair of socks, the artist’s work still requires a certain level of visual de-puzzling on behalf of its audience in order for its clearest voice to come through.
Notice that the drying garments and beautifully-petalled umbrella, for example, are cut from white paper and placed in clear view amid the jumble of type-faced brambles and branches. These details, in relation to the work as a whole, are minuscule, but due to their stark blankness and clarity of form they stand out against the backdrop as sharply as if there were no paper forest or black background at all. Also consider the fact that much of Blackwell’s œuvre is in black and white. She sometimes dabbles with colour, sparingly spacing it throughout a piece like small 'notice' signs; and she has indeed made pieces, though rare, which are doused in a full bloom of colour. But much of her works’ success is arguably due to it being a sinuous but clear monochromatic depiction of things in their simplest states - as if these things were but tedious three-dimensional sketches that burst forth into a final position, showcasing a stripped version of themselves at their purest stage between inspiration and actual creation.
Whoever you are, this work of art has the effect of swallowing one up in a lovely way. It entices one to look harder and longer, perhaps to the point of wishing to be small and nimble enough to crawl along the lettered bark and settle down for a while, treating it like a new home - exactly as Calvino’s protagonist chooses to do.
