Grazing is an art installation created by myself, Jackie Partridge during my Master of Fine Arts at Concordia University. To learn more about the contemporary paper art installation of Grazing - keep reading!
Grazing:
Projection, wooden stands, dyed burlap, abaca and map paper, 29"x 36", 29"x 48", 29"x 52", 2017
Three bundles of burlap and paper drape over individual stands referencing drooping fields or livestock. The work looks both dead and alive.
Grazing: A Meditation on Time, Nature, and Memory
When you live in a place where farmland, fields, and forest meet, it's hard not to absorb the quiet rhythms of the landscape. My paper making and projection piece, Grazing, was created in response to that stillness and repetition—a moment caught in between wilderness and domestication.
Inspired by the Slow Patterns of Rural Life
In Grazing, a cow stands mid-chew in a field, captured through the installation of the wooden stands and draped burlap piles with embedded pulp. There’s something about watching animals graze that slows time down. Their movements are instinctual, unhurried, and connected to the land in a way many of us forget.
This piece is part of a larger exploration of rural life and environmental memory—how our surroundings shape us, and how time lingers in the places we often overlook.
Why Paper Making?
I use the paper making process to create this work because of the repetition and labour that is involved with paper making. Paper making is a very time intensive process. A lot of time is used when creating a sheet of paper. You have to first create the pulp then you have to press the pulp into a form and then you need to wait for it to dry. There is a strong relationship I find with paper making out of farming with farming. It is also a very time intensive and labour filled activity. When you are planting crops you're waiting for the crops to grow while taking care of the crops and tending them and then you're harvesting the crops just like harvesting or collecting the paper after it has dried.
The Story Behind the Image
The cows in this piece are both specific and symbolic. They represent the ongoing presence of agriculture in Ontario’s rural communities—an anchor to a slower, land-based way of living. She also stands for repetition and routine, and the quiet dignity of everyday life.
A Piece for the Quiet Corners
Grazing is for anyone who’s ever paused to admire the curve of a hillside or the way an animal moves through a field. It’s for the nature lover, the nostalgic, and those seeking calm in a fast-paced world.
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