Wendy Wolf, 161 West Gallery, Flora + Fauna
Wendy Wolf, 161 West Gallery, Flora + Fauna, 161 West Cecil B. Moore Avenue, Philadelphia
“Natural Repetition began during an artist residency at Taliesin West in Scottsdale, AZ in the spring of 2007. All leaves are hand reproduced in waxed masa paper or yupo paper. Some installations lasted days and others lasted months.” – Wendy Wolf Artist Statement
Wendy Wolf, 161 West Gallery, Flora + Fauna
161 West Gallery 161 W Cecil B. Moore Ave, Philadelphia, PA 19122, 3/1/13-4/30/13. Live music performance 3/16. Solo show with all new installation work. Over 2,000 sq ft of indoor and outdoor installation. Special events and performances will be announced. Musical performances by We Are Fauna.
Wendy Wolf is an unusual artist. There is no waste in her art-making – not materials, space, time, ideas or craft. The 161 West Gallery has provided an optimal space to let the artist fully express her vision.
“These are replacement leaves, I have to get new ones. They’re in my studio. I’m running a little behind. No one would know, unless I said it. I’m going to try and fix it but I’m so excited about the sound! It’s a new thing and because of Jessica and this space, and Rob, they’re playing a performance on March 16th. Did you walk around under that one?
It feels like the sun’s on your head. This is like the biggest pieces I’ve made, she’s given me this opportunity. We met at Open Studios.”
Philadelphia Open Studio Tours?
“Yeah. At our open studios at 915 Spring Garden and she said, ‘Oh! I like your piece. And, here, call me.’ I was like, ‘Alright.’ And here we are a few months later and I’m very happy.”
Wendy Wolf, 161 West Gallery, Flora + Fauna
“For me, it’s the largest show I’ve had of all this work. Usually, I have just bits and pieces. This is pretty much everything. I took out my arsenal. The wheat pasting I’m so excited about the piece I did outside on the wall, I’ve been dreaming about for, like, a year, ‘You have to do this.’ And today it happened, you know? I was so excited. I can’t wait to do more wherever I can.
This is my Natural Repetition series. What I do is collect things from different times and different places, I’ll have a reason I’m doing something with a certain tree in an installation and then I make a record of that. I collect leaves, then I make scans of them, process them into these line drawings and then re-trace them onto acetate. So that becomes my template that I save for years.”
Wendy Wolf, 161 West Gallery, Flora + Fauna, 161 West Cecil B. Moore Avenue, Philadelphia
“So, I take the leaves and I have the tracings. The paper, yupo, is translucent, it’s a plastic paper made of the same plastic as water bottles. It’s slightly translucent, it makes really beautiful layers. And it’s really surprisingly sturdy. When I cut the leaves out of the paper, I try to use every part of it. I’m using the hole and, you know, the donut. These compositions over here are from what I remove to make the leaves. And even from there I save all the scraps.”
Wendy Wolf showed DoN tiny vials filled with glistening particles of the remains of the plastic paper.
Written and photographed by DoN Brewer.
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