Thursday Salute to Originals: Zip It
Montreal artist transforms zip ties into luminescent sculptural features.
Montreal-based artist Elisabeth Picard has a knack for recognizing new applications for textile techniques. With looping and weaving, Picard has repurposed industrial zip-ties to create illuminated sculptures that merge plastic material and organic composition.
Starting in 2011, Picard has been working with nylon links to create all sorts of futuristic designs. 300,000 zip ties later, the artist has created dozens of sculptural features, ranging from tiny animal forms to large, abstract projects.
Picard is inspired by “landscapes, minerals, plants, micro-organisms and sea creatures,” she said in a recent interview with This is Colossal.
Aside from the incredible feat of creating large organic forms from such tiny pieces, the dimension of electric light highlights the structure of the original material to draw a sharp contrast from the natural curves of the larger to tiny edges of semi-transparent plastic.
This Thursday, we’re saluting Elisabeth Picard’s curling, fanning, and locking technique in plastic zip ties. You can view more of the artist’s textile-style sculptures on her website or Instagram.
Sources: Elisabeth Picard, This is Colossal