Recycled paper for display

A project to make recycled paper for display at the exhibition Afriques Capitales

I recently had the opportunity to work with an artist to make recycled paper for display as part of an art installation that is currently being shown at la Villette as part of the Afrique Captitales exhibition. Here are some photos, as well as a short description of the project and how it was completed.

Artist Poku Cheremeh approached me to help him with part of his installation POKOJ, which is a reproduction of a student’s room made from dried foods and other everyday items : a night stand covered with with chewed gum, a curtain made from hair, a stool covered in Carambar caramel, and walls made from dried WASA crackers.

My role in the project was to make an exterior façade for the room out of the packaging from the products used to create the interior, as well as personal documents of Poku’s.

We worked together to make a paper making frame at the correct panel size, do some tests with the different materials and try out different techniques for hanging the completed paper façade. I eventually made over 200 sheets of paper using recycled documents, sugar packets (which had been used to ‘glue’ the cracker walls together) and the WASA packaging from the cracker walls.

The paper was made using the same basic technique as my tutorial for handmade plantable paper. However, to make rectangular sheets of the correct size I made wooden frames to use as a more solid screen, and added ripped up packaging instead of flower seeds as I made each sheet of paper.

Finding the correct method to hand the paper was another big challenge. In the end I used two methods to hang the façades. One using eyelets to make sturdy holes in each sheet from which to hang and clip them together. The other method involved sewing each vertical section to two ribbons which were then used to hang the whole section from the top of the wall.

The project is on display at La Villette, as part of the Afriques Capitales exhibition which will be open until the 28th May.