Paper objects, by Peter Gentenaar

My interest in paper comes from my work as a printmaker. My etchings and engravings had a deep relief, which the store bought papers could not fill .So I decided to build my own paper factory and was helped along by the people of the Royal Dutch Paper Factory, KNP. They taught me about beaters for the making of paper pulp and vacuum systems to pull water out of pulp, resulting in paper.The laboratory beater I used was not able to process long fibres, so I started building a beater of my own design in order to mill long fibers. I changed and simplified the design and with my users experience turned it into a good machine of which I have sold over 75 now .Because I started out as a printmaker and sculptor, it took time to loose theidea that paper was a helpful carrier for prints or a filler for moulds. Gradually I found that the single sheet of paper, which had not dried yet, had all the possibilities I needed. A paper sheet is thin and strong and can be compared to the leaf on a tree or plant. Reinforced with very thin ribs of bamboo that look like the ribs of a leaf, the analogy between the sheet of paper and the plant form is emphasized even more. By beating my pulp very long, an extraordinary play of forces occurs during the drying processes of my paper sculpture. The paper will shrink considerably, up to 40%, and the forces associated with this, put the non shrinking bamboo framework under stress.
The tension between the two materials transforms itself into a form reminiscent of a slowly curling autumn leaf. 
All the forms in my work are caused by pulp drying and shrinking in unison. All my sculptures start as totally 2-dimensional, colored sheets of pulp laying on my vacuumtable. The simplicity of the material, which is the carrier, the color, the texture and the form,
all together, make working with it wonderful and direct.
To bring this beautiful material to the public and at the same time to be inspired by my fellow paper artists I introduced the Holland Paper Biennial. Together with my wife Pat and friends, we have been organizing the Holland Paper Biennial in the Museum of Rijswijk and I have published the following books to go together which each Biennial. The last few years the biennial has been held in two musea. The second museum is the wonderful new Paper Museum CODA, in Apeldoorn.
The book titles are: Tactile Paper 1996, Paper & Fire 1998,
Paper & Water 2000, Timeless Paper 2002 , Spirit of Paper in 2004,
Paper takes flight 2006, Pure Paper 2008.
All these books, except Tactile Paper, are still for sale.

Peter Gentenaar