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Artwork
#Catalina Swinburn
#paper
#sculpture
#textiles
#weaving
![A sculpture made of woven paper from books.](https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/swinburn-isis-2.jpg)
“Il Ritorno d’Ulisse” (2021), woven paper investiture from the scores of ‘Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria’ by Claudio Monteverdi, 150 x 130 x 40 centimeters. All photos © Catalina Swinburn, shared with permission
“The cloak is a talisman from hurt, retaining one secure and safe all through transitions,” says Chilean artist Catalina Swinburn, whose elaborate sculptures use 1000’s of items of folded paper to discover world historical past. Residing and dealing between Buenos Aires and London, she is drawn to concepts round migration and displacement, turning materials derived from books, paperwork, and maps into large-scale wall items and complex, robe-like compositions.
Swinburn is taken with liminality, the method of transitioning throughout borders or boundaries in area or time that usually requires formal procedures. She focuses on investitures, a time period that applies to each an honorary ceremony and a kind of garment that covers, protects, or adorns the wearer. “My works are what I referred to as Ritual Investitures that stretch energy and resistance by the best way they’re constructed,” she says, “additionally within the fictional concept of how this can be utilized as an armour to guard, or wings to fly, or turn into one thing you want.”
![Two details of a sculpture made of woven paper from books.](https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/swinburn-isis-2-up.jpg)
Element of “Il Ritorno d’Ulisse” (2021)
From meticulously folded items of paper comes a draping cloth, usually mounted onto a panel or photographed because it wraps round a determine’s shoulders. The traditionally fraught practices of gathering and exhibiting cultural artifacts, ceremonial supplies, and human stays can also be a touchpoint for Swinburn, as she considers the character of possession, energy, bias, and illustration. She usually makes use of archaeological volumes for her sculptures, culling pages cataloging historic Roman ground mosaics or antiquities. “Athánatoi,” for instance, is woven from classic sheets containing documentation of displaced glazed bricks from the Palace of Darius, Susa, an historic metropolis in modern-day Iran.
In archaeology, textiles hardly ever survive, including one other layer of mystique to craft and garment traditions around the globe. “Textiles are among the many most seen indicators of sacred areas and sacred roles,” Swinburn says. Utilizing a method she calls “inset” or embedding, the artist creates a sturdy cloth with a sturdy geometric construction that references constructed environments and patterns employed by Indigenous teams. “The weaving is designed with a stepped sample impressed from the sacred ruins and previous scaffold textiles used within the Andean cultures,” she says. “Referring to the suyu whipala construction, every module is minimize and joined collectively manually.”
![A sculpture made of woven paper from books, mounted onto a gold-leaf panel.](https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/swinburn-athanatoi-1.jpg)
“Athánatoi” (2021), woven paper investiture from classic archeological documentation books regarding the displacement of archeological glazed bricks from the Palace of Darius, Susa, 180 x 150 x 30 centimeters
Books have fascinated Swinburn since childhood, when her father amassed stacks of volumes about structure and prehistoric civilizations. She finds her supply materials in charity outlets, markets, festivals, and through her travels, usually impressed by a singular title or classic illustrations. “Books for me are like pilgrims: they’re additionally continuously travelling and transferring,” she says. “They’ve handed from totally different palms, so it holds its narrative, however for me, additionally the narrative of it’s personal journey.” The portability of Swinburn’s supplies is a big side of her observe, since she travels regularly. Her approach entails slicing out the leaves, then fastidiously reducing and folding into exact squares that may be bundled up and brought anyplace.
Textiles have been lengthy been related to home actions and sometimes disparaged as “ladies’s work.” Swinburn turns the tables on this narrative, exploring the illustration of girls all through time or highlighting their absence from the report altogether. She says, “I principally named all of my items out of names for emblematic ladies: Penelope, Arachne, Inanna, Astarte, Isis, Phoenix, Cocha, Quilla, Copacati, Dido, Aida… I at all times suppose, what about if historical past would have been advised from a female perspective? I wish to convey again these narratives and empower them, for us all to suppose on how highly effective they’ve been.”
Swinburn will open a solo exhibition in a London chapel with Selma Feriani Gallery this October. You an discover extra of her work on her web site and Instagram.
![Detail of a sculpture made of woven paper from books.](https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/swinburn-athanatoi-2.jpg)
Element of “Athánatoi” (2021)
![A wall piece made from folded pieces of paper from books.](https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/swinburn-apadana-3.jpg)
“Apadana” (2021), woven paper from archaeological documentation of stone displaced from Persepolis, 370 x 410 centimeters
![Detail of folded and woven paper.](https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/swinburn-apadana-2.jpg)
Element of “Apadanis” (2021)
![A sculpture made of woven paper from books.](https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/swinburn-cocha-1-scaled.jpg)
“Cocha” (2021), handwoven paper investiture piece made out of chosen minimize items from Latin American maritime seafront atlases and maps, 130 x 150 x 45 centimeters
![Detail of a sculpture made of woven paper from maps.](https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/swinburn-cocha-2.jpg)
Element of “Cocha” (2021)
![A sculpture made of woven paper from books, worn by a figure.](https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/swinburn-penelope-scaled.jpg)
“Penelope” (2020), performative picture with woven investiture made out of scores of ‘Il Ritorno di Ulisse in patria’ by Claudio Monteverdi, 120 x 180 centimeters
![A sculpture made of woven paper from books.](https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/swinburn-autobiography-2.jpg)
“Autobiography of a Yogi” (2019), woven paper, 234 x 270 centimeters
![Pieces of folded paper in small bundles.](https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/swinburn-autobiography-1.jpg)
Items in progress for “Autobiography of a Yogi” (2019)
![A sculpture made of woven paper from books.](https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/swinburn-quilla-1.jpg)
“Quilla” (2021), woven paper investiture made out of classic music scores of the nationwide hymns of Latin America, 150 x 150 x 40 centimeters
#Catalina Swinburn
#paper
#sculpture
#textiles
#weaving
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