Once Removed

Arlene Shechet has long found inspiration from Asia, and in her early work often referenced Buddhist forms and concepts. The more than 100 sculptures she created for the Once Removed series were originally installed in a complex, stepped-pyramid arrangement based on a Buddhist mandala, a conceptual architectural model used as a focal point for meditation. The blue and white of the paired sculptures also plays with the idea of an architect-tural blueprint, and the forms of the sculptures reference classic Chinese “blue and white” (qīnghuā 青花) porcelain shapes.

Shechet created the works using handmade abacá fiber paper that she molded around plaster forms. After drying, she carefully cut away the paper and then re-formed it in its vessel shape. The works are then paired with their upside-down plaster forms, used as a base. Shechet has said that “each paper vessel, physically ephemeral, sits on a solid mold form creating a mirror of itself and a reflection into the process.”