space paper!

18 inches x 24 inches, abaca and cotton fibers, 2020

space paper! is a variable edition of handmade paper pieces made using pigmented abaca and cotton pulp in a deckle box. The front of each sheet is made to evoke ideas of outer space – being on earth and looking up at the stars on a clear night, having access to a deep space telescope and seeing nebulas, or being transported to another galaxy. This paper arose out of a collaboration with dance artist and movement researcher, Laila J. Franklin, whose MFA thesis Space Cadet considers Black and Asian women’s presence in performance by “working to activate a methodology of kinetic imagination that might serve in re-orienting marginalized and oppressed bodies towards new possible futures.” Space Cadet involved Skittles that alluded to the Skittles 17-year-old Trayvon Martin carried the night he was murdered. These inspired me to create bright fluorescent stars with pigmented pulp on top of a black and navy-blue base.