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Larger-than-Life Stalagmite Forms Made from Several Million Index Cards

American artist Tara Donovan is known for her innovative use of mundane materials, and her latest exhibition at the Pace Gallery in New York City doesn't disappoint. We've previously seen her form styrofoam cups into a giant undulating cloud and create massive mineral rocks out of mylar film. Now, the artist has sculpted several million glued-together 3″ x 5″ index cards to look like stalagmites that you'd see in a cave.

The eight larger-than-life structures make up a site-specific installation that was created through the accumulating of identical objects. Donovan manipulates them by stacking and angling the their corners, formatting the cards into a tactile, jagged-edge columnar objects. They look like organic forms from a distance, and it's incredible that she's able to fool our eyes into thinking so. This impressive and encompassing display encourages us to reconsider the difference between the banal and grandiose.

Photo credit: @loftgallery

Photo credit: @earlgreyj

Photo credit: @dohyun99

Photo credit: @julzie99

Photo credit: @paridust

Photo credit: @mjfiii

Photo credit: @alanpaukman

Tara Donovan on Pace Gallery website
via [Instagram Blog]

Sara Barnes

Sara Barnes is a Staff Editor at My Modern Met, Manager of My Modern Met Store, and co-host of the My Modern Met Top Artist Podcast. As an illustrator and writer living in Seattle, she chronicles illustration, embroidery, and beyond through her blog Brown Paper Bag and Instagram @brwnpaperbag. She wrote a book about embroidery artist Sarah K. Benning titled "Embroidered Life" that was published by Chronicle Books in 2019. Sara is a graduate of the Maryland Institute College of Art. She earned her BFA in Illustration in 2008 and MFA in Illustration Practice in 2013.
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