Peter Simensky
Peter Simensky
Workspace Program Resident 2007-08
Through my experience as a workspace artist at Dieu Donné, I have been given unique access to develop new approaches to my practice. Until now my relationship to paper was that of the readymade – a given blank surface to mark or existing printed media to appropriate.
Handling the assortment of global bill notes collaged into my Neutral Capital currency series, I began to observe the specific characteristics of the paper and how it held the printed image. Weight and texture, crispness or durability: these characteristics seemed to inform whether a country was in it for the long haul or whether an illustration was all surface, only skin deep. Alternatively, to get up close with the papermaking process – to feel paper pulp in its elementary forms of water and plant matter, was to delve much deeper into the substance of the matter.
Getting my hands wet (literally) on the studio floor at Dieu Donné, noting the length of wet fiber in the cup of my palm, gave tactile cues into the very materiality of what had been mostly hidden in a one-dimensional substrate. The very object-ness of the paper seemed most important to me. My choice to make both the thickest (cast pulp into sculptural forms) and thinnest (watermarked sheets) may reflect that sensibility. Ultimately, I became emboldened and inspired with each attempt to try something else in the studio and push my original ideas into new forms.
The papermaking process and all the knowledge and effort of each member of Dieu Donné formed a rewarding and delightful endeavour and was a huge boon for my work. I look forward to seeing how this experience will carry forward in my working process and the materials I choose to work with in the future.
– Peter Simensky, November 2008
About the Artist
Peter Simensky is a New York based artist. He is a graduate of CUNY Hunter college and UC Berkeley. His most recent solo exhibition was at the Museum of contemporary Art San Diego, ca (2007), and he has staged solo projects with the Swiss Institute of Contemporary Art, NY (2005), and Project Row Houses, TX (2005). Simensky has participated in numerous group shows including: Beyond a Memorable Fancy, EFA Project Space, NY (2008); Grow Your Own, Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2007); It’s not what you know, its who you know, Samson Projects, Boston (2006); Sport, Socrates Sculpture Park, NY (2005); We Could Have Invited Everyone, Andrew Kreps Gallery, NY (2005); New Labor, Columbia University’s LeRoy Neiman Gallery, NY (2005); The Reconstruction Biennial, Exit Art, NY (2003); and Stream, Rare Gallery, NY (2003). Simensky is a NYFA Grantee (2007). His work has been reviewed in the New York Times, the New Yorker, NY Arts, and the Brooklyn Rail.
For more information, please visit their website: http://www.petersimensky.com/