Paula Dunlop
TUFT
2019
Howlite, steel wire
24cm x 24cm x 8cm
Howlite, an inexpensive stone often used to mimic other minerals, is used in its natural, pale state.
Following past woven works, the manufactured howlite beads are brought together one-at-a-time into a twisting length, then joined end-to-end to form a closed loop. The dark stringing material highlights the construction.
Design direction is taken from the materials' packaging; the weave's wave-form pattern — shorter beads moving to longer beads, to short again — is determined by the way the beads are packaged for transport and sale. 1/2 wave length = 1 package of the beads.
Pin Prints
2019
Toned cyanotype photograms
18cm x 26cm
Impressions of ephemeral sculptural assemblages, cast onto paper as cyanotype photograms.
The assemblages were made from hundreds of store-bought, steel fork pins — conventionally used by knitters to join seams or to hold a garment in shape during the blocking process. Experiments with the pins revealed that the ergonomic bend at the top allows for two to be connected, held together through tension. By passing pin through pin, many different shaped forms can be assembled and re-assembled.
The photograms, a 1:1 scale image created through direct contact between the assemblages and the photo emulsion-painted paper, not only capture shadowy glimpses of the pins before their dismantlement, but also become ‘things’ in their own right — present, paper things — existing somewhere between object and image.
Cover
2019
Timber milliner's block, glass beads, thread
16cm x 17cm x 21cm
Beads, draped and handwoven over an old hat block, following its form. The beaded rows increase and decrease, are taken around and under, the block, beads and thread bound together, now belonging to one-another.
Disc (glossy black)
2019
Glass beads, thread
Dimensions variable, 33cm diameter when flat
Glass beads, handwoven into a semi-malleable, radial form taken from the pattern of beading used in Cover. The pattern and rhythm of the beading is interrupted by half-anchored bead protrusions that can be flipped in different directions.
Disc prints 1-5
2019
Toned cyanotype photogram and pencil on paper
41cm x 27cm
Cyanotype photograms—made by placing Disc (glossy black) onto paper treated with a photo-sensitive emulsion. The symmetry and order of the object’s making is ‘thrown off’ by its malleability when placed on the paper’s surface.
Exhibition view, The Part and The Whole
2019
Side Gallery, Brisbane
The Part and the Whole explores parts, wholes and processes, in particular, the use of repetition as both a visual device as well as a process. The works highlight the formal properties of glass beads — their form, texture and geometric qualities, their pattern and repetition, as well as their ability to be assembled and re-assembled in multitudes of combinations.
Thread Drawing for Ribbon (matte black)
2018
Pigment on paper
38.5cm x 59cm (diptych)
Pigmented thread—common to jewellery-making and bead-stringing—is ‘drawn’ through layered paper, an image slowly built with hundreds of passes of the thread.
Ribbon (matte black)
2018
Glass beads, thread
Dimensions variable, 15cm x 154cm when unfurled
Lightly-wiped thread from Thread Drawing for Ribbon (matte black) is woven into a soft-sculptural work with diamond-shaped glass beads, pieced together a few beads at-a-time to create an enlarged, out-sized version of a satin ribbon. The work inhabits an in-between space—an interstice between ‘hard’ and ‘soft’, resembling draped fabric, but yet not entirely malleable.
Exhibition view, Some Like Poetry
2018
Space 776, Brooklyn
An exhibition of works completed while on residency at Space 776, New York City. Click here to view a video about the making of the works.
Pulses and Diamonds
2018
Glass beads, thread, thread spool
8cm x 55cm
Two neckpieces brought together.
Packages (glossy black), and Packages (transparent)
2018
Glass beads, thread, plastic packaging
Dimensions variable
Glass beads and plastic packaging are handwoven together into assemblages that reference the manufacture and the transport of the materials, and their wearable and non-wearable 'ends'. The woven bead strips, when attached to the remaining beads in the plastic packaging, act almost like a gauge or measure, indicating the usage of the beads. They hang, caught in progress somewhere between their manufacture and their ‘end’.