Rolf Kluenter

Since 1985, Kluenter has been working with handmade Nepalese Lokta paper. During the manufacturing process, he blackens the paper (naturally cream) by adding coal dust. The paper is then soaked and manipulated using basic manual techniques – cutting, tearing, weaving, and gluing – to create a surface that is multi-faceted, fractured and irregular. Blackness represents darkness: the antonym to light. Paper is a material full of contradiction: it is both durable and fragile. Paper is vulnerable to destruction, yet paper offers language the chance to endure. Herein lies the paradox that is his prevailing motivation: how to invoke the intrinsic power of paper. --website