Paper Authority

Laurence North
Paper Authority
laurence@falmouth.ac.uk
website - laurencenorth.com

L North’s contribution to the Paper Artifact exhibition is a family of works that are related through concerns with semiology, architecture and abstraction. The work also recognises that paper has an authority that demands a particular attention and treatment as both a material and a subject.
The small books of abstract drawings are derived from numeric systems. North describes these works as being akin to instrumental music as both can operate as numeric structures of pure abstraction. The drawing’s titles are decided before the drawing begins and are playfully linked to the numeric source of the system. The titles offer the viewer a way into the drawing, hopefully by sparking a sense of curiosity and an invention of meaning. Musical titles often operate in a similar way and, should they wish to, a viewer may use the images numeric code as if a musical score, to perform or physically re-enact the work. The book’s small drawings are often developed (re-played) into larger 2D and 3D works on paper or wood (a cellulose cousin to paper).
North also points to the paper’s quality as an important determinant in the nature of the work as the authority of the various papers demands a range of mark making, line qualities and mediums.
Architectural forms are a characteristic of this image family and the inherent abstraction of techtonic mass and decorative surfaces are most evident in the Dolls House paintings. These paintings make use of paper as a subject by depicting fictive decorative wallpapers and 3D folded paper drawings, alongside card models of Brutalist architecture. The dolls house operates as a stage for the paper objects, within a larger set constructed from paintings concerned with abstract architectural forms and references to real wallpapers. This staging allows decorative architectural surfaces and techtonic forms to create a visual chorus that exlpores how buildings create meaning.