Starting from some thoughts about machinery and folding, we looked at small machine made paper pots – the sort of thing found in fast food Restaurants. Could we reform or deconstruct/ manipulate them with the human hand? This only led us so far – we needed more, and so looked at folding or at creasing rather than folding – we had little idea were this idea of would lead us to.
We had a machine that would normally smooth out creases in fabric and remove water – i.e. an old mangle. We played with putting though paper that had oil, ink, salt – even baked beans and crisps, sandwiched between two pieces of tracing paper. We wanted to see what would happen to the liquid inside as it went through the mangle.
This did give some interesting results but what we did get excited about was the creases that were developing as the paper went through the mangle.
So from there, we started experimenting with a range of papers: A2 drawing paper , a whole 20m length of greaseproof paper, and a pile of A4 photocopier paper.
We filmed each process. The films are as fascinating and compelling in a completely different way to the paper sculptural objects formed in the process of mangling.
campbellconnors 