WHAT SEEMS LIKE daily boring stuff can turn out to be so much more.
For instance, some office supplies may be used by artists to create crafty and visually-appealing pieces. Copiers, like those from Copiers Leasing Columbus, are one of these machines.
As Elena Martinique put it in her essay — What Happens When a Photocopy Machine Becomes an Art Tool? — once people realized the potential of the copier to be more than what they thought it would be, they began producing art using everyday objects like never before. The uses of the copiers different features were maximized to a greater extent, and the artists became more craftier in placing the objects onto the machine. Thus, copier artists were able to find their passion and bloom.
Barbara Smith created personal collages using different materials like food, objects, and body parts, pressing them against her personal copier. On the other hand, some artists would go to copy shops to do their art. For instance, Alighierio Boetti made baby chicks walk across the copier glass.
Using copiers as an art tool is unconventional enough, and having these artists thrown out of local copy shops would not have been uncommon. However, more artists decided that things could still get spicier.
Utilizing different papers and toner, Italian artist, designer, and inventor Bruno Munari made copier art by moving materials across the glass whilst they are being copied. This therefore created various unexpected effects. David Hockney and Wolfgang Tillmans, on the other hand, were known for their black-and-white and colored creations thanks to copiers.
Meredith Sellers wrote a review on a copier exhibit she saw last 2016. It was composed of copier artwork created by Pati Hill who talked about different aspects of feminism through copier art. Before seeing the exhibit, Sellers was quite sure she was going to be disappointed, but instead, she was fascinated. As Sellers put it:
Stepping into the gallery, I gazed at the show, curated by Richard Torchia, as it presented grids, lines, and vitrines bursting full of Pati Hill’s delicate, remarkable images, all made on the rather unremarkable IBM Copier II. My cynicism was obliterated. I felt a stunning empathy for these images of daily life, laid bare on the cold, smooth glass of a hulking electronic machine, contextualized by snippets of writing that dipped in and out of memory, metaphor, wit, and the kinds of fleeting thoughts one thinks but never utters aloud.
In summary, using everyday objects in copier art along with short poetry enabled Hill to express the troubles of feminism and how these troubles translated to her personal life as a woman. This implies that copier art has transcended from being just a way to express one’s artistic side to a venue for political expression and discourse.
Sources:
Martinique, E. 2017. What Happens When a Photocopy Machine Becomes an Art Tool?
Sellers, M. 2016. The Personal and Poetic Prints of a Female Pioneer of Copier Art.
‘Xerography’ Art Exhibition Looks at Unconventional Use of Copiers.