UICB MFA candidate, Katharina Siedler’s Paperworks will be featured in Iowa City’s 2012 Fall Gallery Walk.  Stop by the Paper Nest at 220 E Washington Street to see her work.

Opening reception October 5th, 5 – 8pm, and displayed through November 5th

Katharina Siedler earned an MA in History with a focus on Modern History and Eastern European Studies, from the Freie Universität Berlin, Germany. Between 2003 and 2010 she worked as paper conservation technician, and from 2006 to 2009 she was a freelance papermaker at Werkstatt für Papier, run by Gangolf Ulbricht in Berlin. Since 2010 she has been a student at University of Iowa Center for the Book where she is an MFA candidate in Book Arts and serves as a graduate research assistant at UICB Research and Production Paper Facility.

Inspired by traditional Islamic techniques of paper beautification, Katharina Siedler’s Paperworks is an installation series of handmade flax paper, dyed with indigo and walnut. Each piece is sized with starch and burnished by hand, achieving a surface structure that is reminiscent of animal skin/ parchment rather than paper. By following repetitive dying patterns, a tension between order and unpredictable effects is created.