Home > Collection > Collection Highlights > Untitled (Mylar)

Tara Donovan

American, born 1969

Untitled (Mylar), 2007

Mylar and glue
30 x 248 x 203 inches (76.2 x 629.9 x 515.6 cm)
Gift of Mrs. Georgia M.G. Forman, by exchange, 2008

Tara Donovan transforms large volumes of everyday objects into layered, piled, or clustered structures to create her sculptural works, which assume exquisite forms that evoke organic growth and seem to defy the laws of nature. Using unlikely resources such as adding-machine tape, Styrofoam cups, plastic drinking straws, paper plates, and toothpicks, she aims to investigate and draw out the inherently unique traits of these materials.

In Untitled (Mylar), Donovan transforms curled pieces of silvery Mylar into ominous blobs that falter between the natural and the industrial landscape. When asked about these prevalent qualities in her work, she has stated, “It is not like I’m trying to simulate nature. It’s more of a mimicking of the way of nature, the way things actually grow.”