For years I have collected used tea bags, their wrappers, their labels, and their boxes. Since 2011, I conceptualized an ongoing project with the common thread being the tea bags and their components. I transform volumes of these everyday items into intricate compositions. The project has evolved into several series of two and three dimensional pieces based on different elements of the tea bags, as well as installations. These pieces were not planned, but rather have been a spontaneous response to the materials I collected. In doing so, I was able to explore variations in composition, repeating patterns, and recurring elements in a deeper way, and from a greater variety of perspectives. As a group the pieces are unified, cohesive and coherent, but individually they are all unique. In some of the pieces I use the entire tea bag with the tea still inside, whereas in others I use only the paper of the emptied tea bag, or just its wrapper or label. I also sometimes transform the tea bags by altering them, sewing them, rolling them, gluing them, adding found objects to them, or printing on them. The repeated use of the structural elements of the tea bag (wrapper, label, tab, string, bag with tea and emptied, emptied boxes) reveal hidden complexities of distinction and variation. Read Blog Post about the project
Photo gallery of the project – Contact me for prices
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