4 July – 16 August 2009
Preview: Friday 3 July, 6 - 8pm
Fabric of War records personal and collective histories of conflict, translated into paper from uniforms and monuments by US-based Combat Paper Project and Marshall Weber.
Combat Paper Project brings together war veterans, many suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, who pulp their uniforms to make paper as the basis for cathartic artworks (www.combatpaper.org). Founded in 2007, the group tours the US holding papermaking workshops that bring together veterans and members of the public. Their work is in the collections of the Library of Congress and Harvard and Princeton libraries.
Marshall Weber is an artist and curator who founded Booklyn Artists' Alliance in 1999 (www.booklyn.org ). His ongoing Monument project uses rubbing, drawing and collage to create works reinterpreting texts and images from war memorials around the world. Fabric of War will present a substantial body of the Monument series, including new works executed at the Royal Air Force church of St. Clement Danes on the Strand .
Fabric of War is the first exhibition of Combat Paper Project's work outside the US and will be accompanied by a Conflict Paper workshop tour of the UK in June, during which the group will travel with a portable papermaking studio, making paper from uniforms, flags, currency and other materials related to conflict.
Fabric of War is curated by Nick Dubois. Fabric of War tours from The Courtauld Institute. Details of associated activities: www.courtauld.ac.uk/booklibrary/exhibitions
