These works, which I saw in a building in Hudson Yards in New York City, stood out to me as I passed them. I was first drawn to the unique life-imitating nature of this sculpture. It also reminded me of Marela Zacarías’ work. Zacarías, who I did my artist presentation on, similarly makes works of undulating forms. Hers, however, are typically based on fabric type motion and style, and use color combinations to reflect a cultural or historical meaning or sentiment.
These pieces, by artist Paul Rousso, have a similar notion of fluidity and motion in the pieces. Rousso designs his pieces as larger than life imitations of everyday objects that are often ignored, prompting the viewer to think more critically about things they see around them.
Using the same form as these newspaper pieces, some of his other works include candy wrappers, chip bags, currency, and many other forms of movement in everyday paper-like objects.
Although Russo’s pieces are seemingly simple representations of things that surround us daily, they are actually intricate and comprised of many thoroughly thought out elements that are brought together to form a cohesive image. Rousso explores the historical patterns of such things, like the establishment and rises and falls of currency to plan, craft, and compose his pieces.
Rousso’s pieces are intentionally located in places that are easily accessible for anyone to see, public installations to ensure anyone can appreciate his work and their messages.
I appreciated reading about where Rousso draws his inspiration from, and the messages he sends through his pieces, in contrast with that of Zacarías. Despite using such similar artistic and even research techniques, their pieces evoke different sentiments in the viewers, clearly indicative of their differing experiences, perspectives and goals.
