RE WILDING IOWA | Private Commission.
This commission was inspired by the Prairies of Iowa where the family that commissioned it are working to conserve a large piece of land, helping to reinstating the Prairie wildlife. I created a collection of native plants, insects and other natural finds which I arranged them between four large frames. Each frame represented a different season and when hung together made up a much larger display, capturing the feeling of the changing seasons and the cyclical nature of the natural world.
When Matt first contacted me, he and his family wanted to commission a piece that reflected the local wildlife they were working hard to conserve. He sent photos of their space and their surrounding landscape to give a me a feel for the land I was to document, and I asked them if they had any favourite species or species that were of particular significance to their home, and they sent a list of plants, birds and insects. We agreed a budget, and I started researching all the species on their list as well as other plants and insects you may find in the prairies of Iowa. I made extensive notes of each species, making little sketches of plants and ideas as I went. This provided me with all sorts of ideas about how I could display the paper sculptures and link the different species within the frames. It also helped me to work out how I might build the sculptures and what species would work best. After some reading I realised some of the plants were too tall to fit in a frame or would make a display look unbalanced because of the colours. Some would have been so time consuming to make that they would have absorbed a lot of the budget so being able to balance the complicated sculptures with some more simple ones was also a large part of the design process.
Once I had a better understanding of the environment, I came up with some different designs which I sketched out in the space they were to hang. I also mocked up some example frames to give an idea of how the final design may look. These helped Matt and his family to visualize my ideas, and they were really excited about one design in particular which they went with. We discussed adding a couple of extra species and finalised the design and choice of species in each frame.
It took me around 3 months to complete all the individual sculptures and mount them in their frames. There was a lot of fiddling about and experimenting involved in this commission as I had never made any of the species included in it, some of them I had never even heard of before. One of the things I love about taking on a commission is that I am often asked to make things I wouldn’t normally consider making. It often pushes me out of my comfort zone and encourages me to experiment more and gives me an opportunity to learn more about the natural world.
A lot of the plants were created from the pages of book about wildflowers, in particular American prairie flowers. I also used book pages from bird books, brown packing paper and old handwritten letters to give variety to the hidden aspects of the sculptures.
Out of all the frames I think ‘Winter’ was probably the hardest frame to find ideas for. There was not a lot of choice for winter species but I was really inspired by the dead seedheads of summer plants and wanted to try and show off the deep and wonderfully varied colours you find as plants die back.
Re Wilding Iowa | Recycled Paper, Wire and Thread | 110 x 110 cm | 2023.
When I finished the sculptures, I sent photos of them laid out to make sure Matt was happy with them and the way they would sit in the frames. Once I had their approval I mounted the sculptures in the frames and then they were carefully packed up ready to be sent to their new home.
My clients were very happy with their finished frames and said:
“They are absolutely incredible. The level of detail is on the next level and they are pieces we will seriously cherish forever. It blows everybody’s mind that they’re made from paper rather than the real thing.”
The piece took around 4 months to complete from our initial conversations about ideas and inspirations. There was a lot of planning needed for a display this large and it took a while to work out which species were a good fit for the space as well as being able to work together to capture the feel of each season. I absolutely loved working with Matt and his family to bring this idea to life and see it being cherished in their new home.
If you would like to talk about commissioning a piece you can fill out the commission enquiry form here, or email me at hello@katekato.com.