Disintegration project 1

Today I am unwrapping the first piece I made from my disintegration collaboration project (DisCo), a collaboration from the ingenious mind of Seth Apter. If you do nothing else today, please click on the link to his page and visit his blog. He is one of the best artists around, and if his blog isn't enough, just check out all the links associated with this collaboration or the previously posted Buried Treasures. You may never want to leave your computer again!!

To refresh your memory, back in January, I gutted a hard bound book, then bound the pages with twine. I turned some of the pages into bundles, which I also wrapped with the same twine.

On May 1, here is what the elements had done to the bundle. It was falling apart more from my lack of good tying rather than from the elements.

The clothes pin and heavy wire showed more wear than the pages.

Even the images inside were relatively undamaged.

When I put things back in the basement, I stored everything for this project in a plastic bag and hung it for easy retrieval, so everything would be handy when I began working on it.

In fact, I used that very image from above in my first completed piece.

To help the disintegration along and to make it fit, I burned one of the bundles,

while I left some with the bundles' original twine intact.

The only things I added that were not part of the bundle, were a piece of mesh, some masking tape, dressmaker tissues, part of a ruler, and two pieces of bark.

I covered the piece inside and out with a brown paper bag that I painted. I lined the piece edges with parts of the book pages. I think I like the back better than the front. The size is about 12" X 18".

And here it is, my masterpiece (number 1) made solely from recycled materials and the disintegration bundle. I used a section of the book as the mat for the photo. Because the pages had gotten wet, they didn't lay flat, so I added a piece of cardboard and paper bag I altered over the pages for support.

I chose this image because it reminded me that memory is fragile and as we age, we lose even the most precious memories if there is no attempt at preservation. Moments of life become blurred, distorted, and begin to disintegrate. Without preservation, or perhaps intervention, attempts to save this piece (and project) from the elements and from my memory would fade, distort, and decompose, too.

Please check back tomorrow for the second piece I am making from the rest of the disintegration pieces.