The art of accumulation

In the creation of her sculptures, Tara Donovan follows just a few simple rules. First of all she identifies a material or object (she has used electric cables, toothpicks, pins, rolls of sticky tape, pencils, straws, plastic cups and paper plates), after which she gets hold of tens of thousands of them.

In the creation of her sculptures, Tara Donovan follows just a few simple rules. First of all she identifies a material or object (she has used electric cables, toothpicks, pins, rolls of sticky tape, pencils, straws, plastic cups and paper plates), after which she gets hold of tens of thousands of them. At this point she proceeds by repetition, in other words assembling one piece after another, working with the physical properties of the chosen material. Behind this systematic process of accumulation lies the search for a different perception of reality.

Her latest work is even more monumental: three million plastic cups glued to the floor of the PaceWildenstein gallery in New York. This installation evokes a picture of a snow-covered landscape rippled by the wind, and is also being presented (in a smaller version of 600,000 cups) at the St Louis Art Museum where an exhibition curated by Robin Clark dedicated to Tara Donovan is on show until 25 November. E.S.

http://www.slam.org

The art of accumulation

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