Newspaper Portraits

Woven Newspaper Portraits by Gugger Petter

Most people look at old newspapers as trash, but for artist Gugger Petter it’s a challenging medium for which she has the utmost respect. Using  a special weaving technique, she’s able to take fragile newspapers and turned them into beautiful portraits. Although she considers the informative purpose of the newspaper important, Petter has been fascinated with this unusual art medium because it presents her with a black/white/and limited color palette, which she has always preferred. In 1986, when she first arrived in California, she laid eyes on a stack of discarded newspapers yellowed by the sun, and found it very intriguing. From that day forth she started thinking about ways she could use this material in her art. She started by rolling newspapers into tubes and creating wall and floor sculptures, but after a couple of years she developed her weaving technique. “The most difficult things working with newspaper, is actually what makes this material most interesting to me,” Gugger Petter says. “I have always been inspired by challenge, so when I decided to work with newspaper, it was in fact due to the limitations or difficulty this material presented – both in regard to color palette and fragility. ”My manipulation of the tubes makes my work very strong, and the color limitation is a challenge that inspires me for each work I create. If I one day no longer find newspaper challenging as a work material, I would no longer work with it. But so far I am very inspired by newspaper. Furthermore, I also love the information aspect and importance of newspaper.”

فنانة تحول الصحف القديمة إلى لوحات فنية

تتميز غوغر بيتر عن غيرها من الفنانين بأنها تستخدم ما لا يمكن أن يخطر على بال أحد في صناعة لوحات فنية ليس لها مثيل، فهي لها القدرة على تحويل الصحف القديمة إلى لوحات جميلة وبورتريهات. وأوضحت غوغر أنها تعشق استخدام الصحف تحديدًا لأن ألوان الأبيض والأسود تزيد من جمال لوحاتها. بدأت غوغر بيتر استخدام الصحف لعمل لوحات فنية للمرة الأولى في 1986 عندما وجدت كومة من الصحف القديمة التي اكتسبت لون أصفر بفعل أشعة الشمس، وصنعت بها لوحة للمرة الأولى، ومنذ ذلك الحين وهي تطور منهجًا لها في عمل لوحات من الصحف. كانت في البداية تقوم بطي الصحف على شكل أسطواني وتلصقها بعضها ببعض على الجدران أو الأرضية، ومع الوقت تطور أسلوبها فبدأت تستخدم الصحف لصنع لوحات فنية وتماثيل رائعة الشكل.