In 2017, Mississippi will be celebrating its 200th year of statehood. For this Advanced Typography studio, the challenge was to create an unconventional folding structure to celebrate an upcoming anniversary, I chose Mississippi. To be honest I did not know much about Mississippi prior to selecting it as my subject for this piece. This being a typography studio, I chose Mississippi becuase I was looking forward to playing with the letters that made up the name and anticipated some fun results. However through my research of it’s culture, blues music, it’s history of slavery and civil rights strife, my tone started to change.
Throughout my process I kept asking myself, “who am I designing this for?” and needed to put this project into context. I wanted to make something that Mississippians could look at and feel proud about being from Mississippi. I envisioned an installation at some bicentennial gala where two hundred of these paper sculptures could be exhibited around the venue. These are interactive pieces meant to be assembled by the audience of guests as they’re hung on the walls. The sheets of paper lay flat on the walls until it is interacted with. All that’s required of them is to hold the bottom of the paper, twist, and affix the bottom to the wall. The paper strands are thereby “activated” and guests are encouraged to handle the individual strands and adjust them to create a sculpture that is unique. The paper strands, which appear to be independent of one another, are actually all connected and are one, like the once diametrically opposed ideas, beliefs, cultures and people from this land. This form was also inspired by the confluent rivers that make up the Mississippi Delta region where small rivers flow out of and back in towards the mighty Mississippi river. Guitar strings fixed to the wall like a diddley bow, rows of agricultural farm land, and the crossroads where Robert Johnson, legendary delta blues musician, is rumored to have sold his soul to the devil; all of these inspired the shape of this structure.
Each sculpture has it’s own lamp underneath it which the audience is also encouraged to manipulate and shine through the sculpture. The shadow the sculpture and light create on the wall resembles an aerial view of the Mississippi Delta region. Furthermore, each sculpture has a unique phrase laser etched into the paper. This phrase may be a line from a Mississippian author or poet, a blues lyric, or civil rights quote. A key word from this phrase has been selected and laser cut out of the paper allowing it to be projected on to the wall as well.
Paper Sculptures
2.5in x 24in (flat)
Tools Used: InDesign, Epilog Mini 24 Laser Cutter
2.5in x 24in (flat)
Tools Used: InDesign, Epilog Mini 24 Laser Cutter
Program Booklet
5.5in x 8.5in
11in x 8.5 (spreads)
Tools Used: InDesign, Photoshop
Black and White inkjet on newsprint
