Audra Wolowiec
Audra Wolowiec
Workspace Program Resident 2017
During my residency at Dieu Donné, I became fascinated by the aqueous nature of paper pulp and how this might relate to sound. The pulp, while buoyantly suspended in water, responded in wave-like patterns during the papermaking process, creating a call and response between material and movement. The atmospheric qualities of sound, how it is felt but not seen, became parallels to that of water held in the paper vats and screens. I began to research images of how sound traveled through water and came upon a series of photographs of wave interference patterns used in physics demonstrations (most famously by Berenice Abbott, from “Interference of Waves” (1958-1961), using a method she created while working at MIT for illustrating techniques in physics by exposing projections of oscillating waves onto photographic paper). Loosely translating these graphic systems through a combination of diagrams and photographs, I produced sheets of paper that attempted to capture the ephemeral phenomena. As a companion series, I cast a series of pigmented paper pulp into rubber molds taken directly from sound foam panels. These forms vary in tone, from silent to loud, further exploring a sonorous experience through resonant material forms.
It was an enormous gift to work in collaboration with Amy Jacobs—her knowledge, experience, and intuitive problem solving were invaluable during the often labor-intensive days in the papermaking studio.
—Audra Wolowiec, 2017
Wolowiec’s interest in working with sound is visualized throughout her work and became an underlying process that informed the material investigations in the papermaking studio. In developing her waveform series, the application of water was utilized along with repeating, radial gestures that alluded to waves of sound. For this process, she made graphic representations of various sound frequencies by painting directly onto netting. This netting was laid on a sheet of paper pulp, and working with Studio Collaborator Amy Jacobs, the “blow-out” technique was used to apply pressurized water to displace the pulp surrounding the imagery. After meticulously removing the screen, the wave patterns in pulp were then laid onto a base sheet in the wet process.
Turning to the paper casting process, Wolowiec created modular cast sculptures that reference acoustic tiles used in sound recording studios. Casting pigmented pulp by hand in rubber molds, she utilized subtle shades in the pigmented pulp to alternately embolden and mute the “tone” of these objects, drawing the viewer into the material surface that invites a sonic read.
In the Studio
About the Artist
Audra Wolowiec is an interdisciplinary artist whose work oscillates between sculpture, installation, text and performance with an emphasis on sound and the material qualities of language. Her sound installations and experimental language scores use the gap, space, or breath in between speech, as ciphers to amplify an undercurrent of language. These scores, or language-based artworks, draw on the traditions of musical notation and experimental writing techniques. They provide conceptual and poetic frameworks for the installations and exist in the form of take-away posters, books, and prints.
Wolowiec's work has been shown internationally and in the United States at MASS MoCA, CCS Bard Hessel Museum, Stony Brook University, Art in General, and Studio 10. Readings and events have taken place at MoMA PS1, The Poetry Project, Microscope Gallery, and Center for Performance Research. Her work has been featured in BOMB Magazine, Modern Painters, The New York Times, The Brooklyn Rail, CAA Journal, Sound American, and reductive journal. Residencies include Bemis Center for Contemporary Art, Complex Systems Art and Physics Residency at the University of Oregon supported by a National Science Foundation Grant, and Dieu Donné.
Wolowiec currently teaches at Parsons School of Design, SUNY Purchase, and Dia:Beacon. She is the founder and director of the publishing platform Gravel Projects.
Wolowiec’s work has been shown internationally and in the United States at MASS MoCA, Art in General, Studio 10, The Poetry Project, Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, Stony Brook University, and the Center for Performance Research. Featured in BOMB, Modern Painters, The New York Times, The Brooklyn Rail, CAA Journal, Sound American, and reductive journal. Residencies include Bemis Center for Contemporary Art, Complex Systems Art and Physics Residency at the University of Oregon supported by a National Science Foundation Grant and Dieu Donné. She was the inaugural Artist Educator in Residence at Dia:Beacon and currently teaches at Parsons School of Design and SUNY Purchase. (Source: Artist’s website)
For more information, please visit their website: https://www.audrawolowiec.com/