I would like to emphasize that my research pursuits are not strictly related to paper; rather, they revolve around issues of sculpture and the broadly understood sculptural workshop. I do not mean the tools typically associated with a creative workspace. I would like the academic teacher’s workshop to be associated not only with a collection of tools and knowledge about the material and methods used. I am referring to more of a private and internal area where the form is conceived before touching the material. This space, in my consciousness, is open to experimentation, characterized by continuous and exhaustive physical-structural explorations, conditioned by transcending formal boundaries. It is a process through which I touch the truth of the physical shape of my work. I mainly rely on my own experience and the acquisition of paper mass from cellulose and recycled paper. From clay models, through gypsum molds, I cast and shape my individual forms using paper mass. In this consistency, I can use paper mass individually, as required by a given project. Controlling the composition, I strive to maintain a symbiosis of the freshness of the drawing with the space of the created form. Paper, due to its compressed mass and color, is durable, while its delicacy manifests in the mysterious emanation of light. It both absorbs and reflects light, highlighting the created shapes.

For some time now, I have also been using paper mass dyed in bulk. As a result, the forms are dark, presenting an ambiguous black. In relation to previous light almost white works, they are a contrast in color. The application of this new technology aimed to consolidate the mass. This solution was the only way I could unify different materials and tones of recovered paper. Observing the works from a distance, I achieved a difference between natural weight versus the illusion of plastic weight.

Tomasz Westrych