Mountain buildings

I've started layering cut-out sections of buildings and cityscapes to make some 3d paper reliefs, it's quite difficult to show all the different pieces in a photograph but my favourite ones are the individual buildings pointing up to the sky, they are almost more recognisable as mountains rather than buildings. The more built up reliefs however are much more literal of a city.

Skyline syndrome

When I took a ferry out to the Statue of Liberty I remember looking back at Manhattan and the towers overlooking the Hudson and not being able to help but imagine them as little rhomboids, made from card or wood, pieced into a massive grid like some kind of giant 3d jigsaw puzzle. So it was only natural that the first thing I did when I got back was to make paper cut-outs and pop-ups of the skylines and buildings I saw.

New York, New York

In June this year I was lucky enough to win a Travel Award prize from Uni to go to New York. I chose the destination as I was aware that not only were the art galleries and exhibitions going to be unmissable but just being in the city would be completely influential. There was a 'more than perfect for me' exhibition on at the time at the MOMA called 'Paper: Pressed, stained, slashed, folded,' and as paper is one of my main materials to work with I was spoilt. But then I took a train uptown to Beacon and visited without a doubt my favourite gallery in the world, the Dia:Beacon. As my work was becoming more 3d and I needed to look at other materials this place was sure to give me some inspiration, housing some of the largest sculptures you could ever imagine including Richard Serra, Donald Judd and a personal favourite artist of mine Sol LeWitt.

Pop Up

Rebecca Hooper, 2009, 'A Minimalist's Book,' Paper, 21 x 29 cm

I love that a simple horizontal cut across a fold can grow into a complicated cluster of three-dimensional shapes. This book starts off with a single cube and gradually becomes more and more filled, until there are so many they fold outside of the pages when closed. Around the time I made this I was looking at so many different ways to make a shape pop out of a page but the excitement of working in 3d took over and my cardboard boxes stole my full attention.

Square Obsession

Rebecca Hooper, 2009, 'Untitled,' Cardboard, 152 x 152 x 51 cm

Rebecca Hooper, 2009, 'Infinity,' Paper on Plastic, 5.5 x 5.5 x 5.5 cm

Rebecca Hooper, 'Cathedral Window,' 2009, Folded Paper, 96 x 128 cm

As I continued on into my second year of Uni, I relied more and more on underlying patterns, whether it was a number sequence or all the white squares in a crossword puzzle, for the structure of my work and found inspiration in anything from a cardboard box to quilting patterns.

Thank you Mary Martin

Rebecca Hooper, 2008, '1-15,' Paper and Card, 46 x 78 x 2 cm

Over two years ago I began working with permutations and numbers, systems and squares. Not much has changed since.........