Artist transforms painted cardboard boxes into art

Artist transforms painted cardboard boxes into art
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The opening reception
for Rice University Art Gallery’s first spring exhibit,
“True, False and Slightly Better,” a large-scale
sculptural installation by Phoebe Washburn, will be on view
today through Feb. 23. The opening reception will be this
evening at 5:30 p.m.

The primary component
of Washburn’s work will be thousands of cardboard boxes
that she collected from the loading docks, sidewalks and
alleyways of New York.

Back in her studio,
Washburn painted part of each box a delicate pastel hue,
transforming it into a module to be incorporated into her
work. Her massive forms often seem to defy gravity as they
hover above the floor without touching it, precariously
balanced on comical props such as pencils, chairs or ladders.

Washburn will
give a brief talk about her work at 6 p.m. Complimentary
refreshments including soft drinks, wine and ale handcrafted
by the brew master at Saint Arnold Brewing Company will
be served.

Music will be
by DJ Ahypnos. This event is free and open to the public.

The ongoing life
of discarded materials is an important aspect of Washburn’s
work. Each box she reuses has an inherent history, once
having been used to hold, move, mail or store materials.

The artist keeps
the outer labels and stamps of each box intact, but paints
the inside flaps with pastel “mistints,” custom-mixed
latex paint colors that were rejected because they were
not what the customer desired.

Washburn considers
her use of cast-off materials to be, in effect, a shift
of perspective.

“Someone
once described my process of collecting, painting and organizing
the cardboard as making the cardboard only slightly better,”
she said. “I loved that. It is very basic yet the most
crucial part of my work.”

Washburn draws
attention to the importance of an alternative way of looking
at things by sometimes including a “viewing platform”
in her installations. Visitors may climb up, then look down
to get a visual surprise, for instance, a swirling vortex
of color in a cardboard canyon.

Washburn received
a master of fine arts degree from the School of Visual Arts,
New York, in 2002. That same year she had a solo exhibition
at LFL Gallery in New York and was a recipient of a Marie
Walsh Sharpe Foundation Award.