Ever partied in a room full of paper? Now I can say that I have. PULP: Reclaimed Materials Art and Design is a Toronto-based not-for-profit corporation set to encourage community building and environmental awareness. Their debut event was in April 2013. Somehow, I only found out about the organization and the party this year. On January 14th I headed out to Geary Lane (360 Geary Ave, Toronto) and stepped into what was described as a "blue bin playground".
PULP : paper art party 2017 combined reclaimed materials installation art, live music, dancing, and charity. In addition to being a fun event that made you think about environmental awareness, it was a fundraiser designed to examine the current life cycle of paper materials (among others) and investigate alternative uses. Each year, the organization supports a Toronto charity. This year, artist Ksenija Spasic worked again with staff and youth at YSM Evergreen Centre, making wearable art for the event. In addition, funds raised during the event will go to Evergreen Centre for Street-Involved Youth. Evergreen Centre for at risk street youth which provides varied and nutritious meals at their youth drop-in centre. Last year they donated over $1500 to the cause.
For more information and donation visit - http://pulpartparty.ca/charity-paper-art-party-2017/ Yonge Street Mission Evergreen Yonge Street Mission Jubilee Designs
Some photos and information about some of my favourite installations of the night.
Partygoers walked into Geary Lane under CATENARY CANOPY BY BD STUDIO MONA DAI & EVAN BROCK
The installation was comprised of individual hanging panels varying in size (1’ to 5’) and pattern density. The panels were created by folding together individual strips of paper. No mechanical fasteners were used.
EYE OF THE STORM BY ALLO STUDIO
This paper/light tunnel was made of sheets of used paper (blueprints), strung along on pieces of string. It was a free floating exhibit with a square in the middle so you could look through from one side to the other. Eye of the storm is an installation that loosely represents life’s state of constant flux and uncertainty.
RUNOUT GROOVE BY NOAH MCGILLIVRAY
I was following PULP on social media leading up to the party and after reading the description, this exhibit was the one I was looking forward to the most.
A three-dimensional collage of old, damaged, and dusty vinyl records (and their graphic sleeves), forming a kind of palimpsest of obsolete consumer media. The visitor can actually enter, occupy, and be enveloped by an immersive visual experience. Visitors to the piece will have the opportunity to add to the collage themselves – boxes of more records will be incorporated within the environment, and new fragments will be chosen via a performative selection process. Each visitor will thus be instrumental in creating new juxtapositions, contrasts and harmonies. At the same time, in order to open up space for new additions on the framework / armature, records will have to be removed and ‘deselected’. The visitors will be able to bring these records home with them as a souvenir of the piece and their visit to PULP. A listening station with headsets with be on site as well.
I loved how interactive it was, the musty basement smell that came from the records, and that you had to go back a few times to look at everything. It was hard to see everything in one viewing and over the course of the evening, the exhibit looked different as participants added and removed records. I'll post a picture on Instagram of the record I took home.
VOLUME AND VOID BY INTERSPATIAL - NATALIA BAKAEVA AND MARK FRANCIS
A uniform “cubic” formation of recycled strips of paper, 8’ on all sides of the installation. Suspended from an overhead wire mesh by paperclips, the strips form a porous volume that can then be manipulated by the participants. This was like a little like walking through a paper maze or a funhouse. Later on in the evening, the installation became interactive as participants were invited to use scissors, or their hands, to tear away the paper producing two negative-space tunnels, which then intersect in the middle.
POPCORN SELFIE STATION - Art Police Collective
Story and photos by Glodeane Brown
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