ERIK & MARTIN DEMAINE
ERIK & MARTIN DEMAINE
FeatheRED
Mi-Teintes watercolor paper. 2019.
9" × 10" × 14" high
ShakespeaRED Series
"What do the words 'sacred', 'redeem', 'credit', 'redoubled', and 'undishonoured' have in common? They all contain the color 'red' in them, and furthermore are in the collected works of Shakespeare. In his entire works, Shakespeare used an impressive 25,538 unique English words, of which 235 words contain 'red'. We printed these 235 words in concentric circles on paper, in the order they first appear in Shakespeare's works. Then we fold between the circles of text to form curved crease sculpture. We chose a font called Hamlet designed by
Edward Johnston for an award-winning art-book edition of Hamlet published by Cranach Press in 1930. It was declared by Buchkunststiftung der Deutschen Bücherei (Leipzig) as 'the most beautiful book of the year'."
ERIK & MARTIN DEMAINE
Pan Albers
Mi-teintes watercolor paper. 2019.
7" x 11" x 10"
An exciting new piece made for our From Bauhaus to Our House exhibition: “This piece is an imagined collaboration with Josef Albers, who was a pioneer of the Bauhaus, modern art education, and curved-crease folding. Our curved-crease sculpture is always inspired by Albers' foldings from the late 1920s, but we wanted to incorporate his later work on colored murals. Specifically, we adapted Albers' infamous 25' × 55' mural “Manhattan” (1963) that was in the lobby of the Met Life building (formerly the Pan Am building) until its controversial removal in 2000. Because the piece is currently in a landfill, we based our interpretation on the better-documented “Maquette for Pan Am Building Mural” (1963). We took the repeating middle part of the design, warped it around a circle, printed it onto paper, and folded along aligned concentric circular creases. The resulting pieces newly combine two aspects of Albers' work in a way that we hope he would find exciting.”
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ERIK & MARTIN DEMAINE
FeatheRED
Mi-Teintes watercolor paper. 2019.
9" × 10" × 14" high
ShakespeaRED Series
"What do the words 'sacred', 'redeem', 'credit', 'redoubled', and 'undishonoured' have in common? They all contain the color 'red' in them, and furthermore are in the collected works of Shakespeare. In his entire works, Shakespeare used an impressive 25,538 unique English words, of which 235 words contain 'red'. We printed these 235 words in concentric circles on paper, in the order they first appear in Shakespeare's works. Then we fold between the circles of text to form curved crease sculpture. We chose a font called Hamlet designed by
Edward Johnston for an award-winning art-book edition of Hamlet published by Cranach Press in 1930. It was declared by Buchkunststiftung der Deutschen Bücherei (Leipzig) as 'the most beautiful book of the year'."
![shakespeared_unfolded]( "shakespeared_unfolded")
![0632-014_medium]( "0632-014_medium")
ERIK & MARTIN DEMAINE
Pan Albers
Mi-teintes watercolor paper. 2019.
7" x 11" x 10"
An exciting new piece made for our From Bauhaus to Our House exhibition: “This piece is an imagined collaboration with Josef Albers, who was a pioneer of the Bauhaus, modern art education, and curved-crease folding. Our curved-crease sculpture is always inspired by Albers' foldings from the late 1920s, but we wanted to incorporate his later work on colored murals. Specifically, we adapted Albers' infamous 25' × 55' mural “Manhattan” (1963) that was in the lobby of the Met Life building (formerly the Pan Am building) until its controversial removal in 2000. Because the piece is currently in a landfill, we based our interpretation on the better-documented “Maquette for Pan Am Building Mural” (1963). We took the repeating middle part of the design, warped it around a circle, printed it onto paper, and folded along aligned concentric circular creases. The resulting pieces newly combine two aspects of Albers' work in a way that we hope he would find exciting.”
![Screen-Shot-2019-07-31-at-2.38.31-PM]( "Screen-Shot-2019-07-31-at-2.38.31-PM")
“When folded along curved creases, paper shapes itself into a natural equilibrium form. These equilibria are poorly understood, especially for curved creases. We are exploring what shapes are possible in this genre of self-folding origami, with applications to deployable structures, manufacturing, and self-assembly. This transformation of flat paper into swirling surfaces creates sculpture that feels alive.”