Tara Donovan is a New York-based artist who turns huge quantities of everyday manufactured materials, such as plastic cups, paper plates, pencils and straws— into sculptural installations that evoke clouds, landscapes and gigantically magnified microscopic organisms. Curator Nicholas Baume notes that, although her work contains elements of classical minimalism, it also suggests ”digital, cellular, emergent networks. It seems to speak to the systems that are shaping our lives.” (source)
This piece, titled Haze (2003), is made entirely of ordinary plastic drinking straws, stacked to 42 feet wide by 12 feet high. It combines the ethereal beauty of cumulus clouds with the drama of a mountain range. And, if you have room, you can build one in your basement.
A show of Tara Donovan’s work is coming up at the Louisiana Museum of Modern art in February 2013.
The Finch and Pea 