Peter Gentenaar

Today is Tuesday, August 11th

Hello everyone! Today we hope you’ll enjoy the other-worldly hanging paper sculptures of Peter Gentenaar as much as we do. Peter writes that the organic nature of his work comes from the inspiration he finds in the “plant bud, which, in spring, unfolds into a leaf”. The leaf, in spring, is fed with water and unfurls from a “compact folded form” into a “great spacious form”. In autumn, the leaf falls from the tree and dries up, leaving “a small web of fibers curling around the spine” as the leaf’s new form. Gentenaar uses a similar process of allowing the process of wetting and drying his fibers to create the final product of his organic papermaking. He starts with the pulp that will later dry into his paper pieces and shapes it around a frame of bamboo sticks. As the paper pulp is dried with dehumidifiers and fans, the sculpture shrinks around the bamboo form. “The bamboo fights the shrinking but has to bend,” writes Gentenaar, “the tension between the two materials is responsible for the final form in the sculpture”.

Gentenaar’s pieces have been used to decorate the Abbey Church in Saint Riquier, Somme, France for their classical music festival, shopping malls around the globe, and even the catwalk of a fashion show in collaboration with Iris van Herpen. You can view more of Peter Gentenaar’s work on his website,gentenaar-torley.nl.