In January I decided to embark on a project that I had thought about for a long time. What would happen if I created an "art bundle" and placed it outside? What if nature were my partner in a collaboration?
I have always been fascinated by the impact of natural elements, of age, and of time, on materials and objects.
The rust of a washer found in the street.
The yellowed and dog eared pages of a vintage book.
The faded and weathered look of an old, painted building.
The layers and paper fragments of an old billboard.
The distressed look of metal left out in the elements.
So...I made a simple bundle using vintage dictionary pages, gesso, and string. No more and no less. Outside it went. With rain. In snow. Through hail. In sunshine. Under clouds. In the dark. I watched. I waited.
As I thought about the process of disintegration, I saw it not as destruction. Or decay. Or death. But as renewal. Change. And life.
And a funny thing happened. Just as my bundle was undergoing a rebirth and metamorphosis, so too did the project. My simple idea became a collaboration. And grew. The Disintegration Collaboration was born. And ended up being 123 artists strong! Bundles were everywhere. And suddenly, the thought of a rainy day did not seem so bad after all!!
As the months passed, it seemed that my bundle did not change at all. But when I see the before picture and compare it to the after image, I see that I was wrong. The changes are there.
Before:
After:
Details:
Beginning today, all participating artists are revealing their "afters" on their own blogs. The links to each artists' "before" bundles are on the sidebar of my blog under the "disintegration collaboration - before" link. At this point, to see their "after" pictures, click on the banner of their own blogs and this will take you to their most recent post. Depending on when you look, you may have to look at a few posts until you find their disintegration post.
As artists begin to post their bundles, I will also be adding their links to my sidebar under a new, "disintegration collaboration - after" link. That way, you will be able to go directly to either the "before" or the "after" shots. I will be adding links as I find them, so that it will be easier for you to keep track of which blog posts you have seen over the course of the weekend.
I hope you will all take the time to see both the amazing bundles created by this incredible group of artists, as well as the impact of nature and time on these bundles. And don't forget to leave some comments along the way!
Stay tuned for more posts about this project in the coming days!
