If I Was Real
In December of 2013, João Cocteau Kunstraum in Berlin hosted me to work on the series If I Was Real. I used the posters and ephemera I found and gathered during my time in Berlin as the material and began playing with the idea of ancient labyrinths and mazes, interlacing these with the idea of layers of living, ephemera - that life itself is often confusing and we probably all feel at some time that the whole journey feels like going through a labyrinth where we don’t have a clear idea of everything . . . but meanwhile wonderful things happen in the turns and changes . . . life happens. We seek to confirm that we were real and that we were here by these bits of paper that tell not just where we were but who we were. The ephemera are mainly the defunct handbills and posters that festoon the city long past their use, creating a kind of living diary on the very walls of the city itself. There are plenty of cigarette papers, pickup slips, ticket stubs, notes-to-self, postcards, and old photos scrounged from flea markets. Some of the old events are still visible through the white veil on which I add a few notes of my own to Berlin's sketchbook. The mazes are taken from old and in some cases ancient mazes, from Iran, Greece, England and even Berlin. The result was four large pieces, each about 130cm square.
In 2014 two additional pieces were added to the series as a special project for the twentieth anniversary festivities for Quedlinburg's designation as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The work traveled to exhibit at Hohestraße 8 in Quedlinburg and will be on view until September of 2014.
We were here. These things happened.
All works copyright Paula Billups 2013, 2014. May not be used or reproduced without permission.
In 2014 two additional pieces were added to the series as a special project for the twentieth anniversary festivities for Quedlinburg's designation as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The work traveled to exhibit at Hohestraße 8 in Quedlinburg and will be on view until September of 2014.
We were here. These things happened.
All works copyright Paula Billups 2013, 2014. May not be used or reproduced without permission.
And We Were All There - Pir-Al-Bakran Maze, 12th Century Iran.
Ephemera, paint, foil, gesso on posters. 125x130cm. |
The Mistral - Pylos Maze, Crete, 1200BC.
Ephemera, paint, foil, gesso on posters. 130x128cm. |
Little Lion Man, In Search of Giants - Berlin Maze, 1930s Psychology Textbook
Ephemera, paint, foil, gesso on posters. 130x128cm. |
Folly Can't Touch the Center - Ripon Common Maze, Yorkshire. Ephemera, paint, foil, gesso on posters. 125x130cm. |
You Can't Open a Rose. Maze garden design 1728, Batty Langley, England. Paper, posters, gesso, rose petals, foil, ephemera, paint. 100x110 cm.
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The Liminal Space Between the Bark and the Tree. Poitier Cathedral Labyrinth. France, 14th Century. Paper, posters, gesso, rose petals, ephemera, foil, paint. 90cm x 120cm
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SLIDE SHOW OF DETAILS
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Slide Show 2 - Making the Work
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