Peter Gentenaar’s Ethereal Paper Sculptures Float in the Air Like Jellyfish

Remember making those paper mache doohickeys at the craft table back in kindergarten? Well, multiply that by a very, very large number and you get the work of <a href="http://www.gentenaar-torley.nl/Home_E2.html" target="_blank">Peter Gentenaar</a>, a paper artist based in the Netherlands. Comparing a sheet of paper to a leaf on a tree, his amorphic, floating <a href="http://inhabitat.com/tag/paper-sculpture/">sculptures</a> defy conventional thinking on the material's colloquial, everyday use.

<a href="http://www.gentenaar-torley.nl/Home_E2.html" target="_blank">Peter Gentenaar</a>'s art was born out of the limitations of what he could (or couldn't) create with store-bought paper.

So with the help of the <a href="http://en.wikiarquitectura.com/index.php/Headquarters_of_the_Royal_Dutch_Paper_Factory" target="_blank">Royal Dutch Paper Factory</a>, he built his own paper factory and devised a custom <em>beater</em> that processes and mills long-fiber paper pulp into the material you see in his artwork.

He saw the potential that wet paper had when reinforced with very fine bamboo <em>ribs</em>.

He learned to form the material into anything his imagination would allow.

Gentenaar describes the process: "By beating my pulp very long, an extraordinary play of forces occurs during the drying processes of my paper sculpture."

"The paper will shrink considerably, up to 40%, and the forces associated with this put the non-shrinking bamboo framework under stress."

"The tension between the two materials transforms itself into a form reminiscent of a slowly curling autumn leaf."

In honor of the 25th edition of the festival of classical music of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint-Riquier" target="_blank">St. Riquier</a>, more than 100 of Gentenaar's empyrean paper sculptures were on display inside the French abbey church and adjoining monastery last summer.

Suspended from the Gothic arches of the centuries-old structure (built in 638), his paper sculptures resemble multi-colored jellyfish swimming in a sea of white limestone.

Gentenaar's <a href="http://www.stedelijkemuseakampen.nl/smk/koornmarktspoort/index.asp" target="_blank">current exhibit</a> in Doesburg runs until March 12th.

<big><a href="http://www.gentenaar-torley.nl/Home_E2.html" target="_blank">+ Peter Gentenaar</a> </big>