Peter Gentenaar’s Ethereal Paper Sculptures Float in the Air Like Jellyfish
Peter Gentenaar‘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 Royal Dutch Paper Factory, he built his own paper factory and devised a custom beater 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 bambooribs, and 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.”
