Reflection Paper Sculpture

I created this sculpture of a person surrounded by spikes out of a single piece of paper. The person is frazzled and overwhelmed and feels trapped in this box. The pressure and stress he feels is represented by the walls of spikes pressing in around him. I chose to make this because thinking back on my past semester on which we had to base this project, I had many trying experiences that made me feel strung out and stressed in addition to pressure I put on myself to do well in school. I felt stuck and unsure of what to do in many situations so I chose to portray those feelings through this spike sculpture.

I used a single piece of paper, an exacto knife, and white tape to make this sculpture.

I began the process of creating this sculpture by sketching out the little person and then started drawing triangles all around him where I wanted the spikes to be. I cut out the outline of the person using an exacto knife to then make him stand up on the paper. I accidentally cut the entire way around him, therefore I had to reattach him to the paper with tape which I then folded at the bottom of his feet to make him stand up. I knew that I wanted to create a box structure so I folded the paper to the right of the person and then made a cut in the paper in order to fold it over and around the person, making a box. Because of this approach and the amount of cuts I made in the strip of paper I folded over, the box structure was weak and curved instead. If I were to do it again, I would cut and fold the paper up on three sides of the person and include tabs to glue the sides together in order to get the clean, square shape I wanted. This sculpture is made with the elements of shape, form, and space in mind as well as unity. I had to be thoughtful about what kind of shapes I was creating from the paper in order to convey a certain mood through the artwork. I also had to play around with form and space in order to achieve the closed in look I was trying to get while at the same time trying to evenly and effectively use the space I had within the box. There is unity in this piece in the spikes surrounding the character that also connect to the sharp edges of the person's hair and fingers that portray the tense shocked mood. My next steps with this project could be to reconstruct the walls of the box.