In his teachings, the late Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh uses a sheet of paper to explain how, in his words, “nothing can exist by itself alone.” “If there were no clouds, there would be no rain. The plants would not be able to grow. Without plants, we cannot make the pulp for the paper,” Hanh says. “So really, the clouds are in here,” he continues, pointing to a tiny sheet of paper. The sermon finishes with Hanh imagining the piece of paper burning, returning to smoke and ash, and thus to the very earth it came from.

Cladis will host a series of “paper pulls,” wherein participants will “pull” a single sheet of handmade paper. When each sheet of paper is made and dried, it will then be placed within the gallery space as a progression that has been situated to seated eye level. He hopes for each participant to become a piece of this communal oneness, while also developing a basic feel for the interaction between fiber and water, and the interrelationships of time, land, material, community, and choreography inherent to the hand papermaking process. 

Each day, Cladis will add a little bit more black pulp (dyed with soot, to reference the eventual return of the paper to the earth), thereby creating a subtle tone shift in the paper as it wraps around the space. Within the space, participants can sit on handmade paper cushions, contemplating the communal, collaborative work we have all made together.

ARTIST BIO:

Nicholas Cladis is an interdisciplinary artist and papermaker who lives and works in Iowa City, IA. He is the papermaking specialist at the University of Iowa Center for the Book, where he lectures and manages the Oakdale papermaking research facility. Nicholas is an active researcher and practitioner of traditional and non-traditional papermaking processes. His studio work responds to the discipline of hand papermaking itself, thereby engaging with references to aesthetics, time, raw materials, choreography, and culture. For many years Nicholas lived and worked in Echizen, Japan — an area with over 1,500 years of papermaking history — and continues to maintain an active relationship with the papermaking community there.

gallery hours:
Thursday 4-6p
Friday 3-6p
Saturday 12-3p

paper pulls:
Saturday, 9/17, 10am to 1pm
Saturday, 9/24, 12pm to 3pm
Saturday, 10/1, 10am to 1pm

Gallery Walk:
Friday, 10/7, 5pm to 8pm

Closing event:
Saturday, 10/8, 6pm