A live project I made during my time at uni in collaboration with GF Smith. The brief was to reinterpret an artwork of my choice from Tate Britain by using the company's Colorplan paper collection.
I chose "Proserpine" by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, portraying the Greek goddess confined in the Hades and enlightened only by a mysterious opening from above.
Date February 2022
Category Paper engineering
Institution GF Smith, University of the Arts London
Proserpine
By Dante Gabriel Rossetti - Google Arts & Culture — EAH009jkJzYVMw Tate Images (http://www.tate-images.com/results.asp?image=N05064&wwwflag=3&imagepos=1), Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=13458627
The painting deals with two topics sadly still relatable to our times: on one hand, loneliness and isolation (particularly pertinent in the recent pandemic period), on the other, domestic restrictions and female emancipation, represented by the meaning-imbued pomegranate.
To encapsulate the themes of captivity and isolation, I created a paper house with a small window on the roof, hosting a pomegranate inside, which can be seen from a small opening at the front...
In this way, the sculpture design makes use of metaphorical, symbolic and interactive visual means to express its messages, creating an intriguing participation with the viewer.
Just like the goddess in the painting, the pomegranate (made with polystyrene, pins, and pebble embossed scarlet paper) is here illuminated only by a window above.
Details of the ivy paper leaves, which were folded to create a 3D effect.
