Eric Standley in his studio. Photograph by Peter Means.
Artifacts that’s the word artist Eric Standley uses to describe his meticulously assembled layers of multicolor laser-cut paper. The designation is appropriate; Standley’s intricate artworks call to mind centuries-old global decorative motifs, from mandalas and the webbed arching of Gothic cathedrals, to Islamic prayer niches with organic, tangled carvings.
Eric Standley in his studio. Photograph by Peter Means.
These artifacts, which Standley draws, laser cuts, and assembles in his studio, seem to stem from the tradition of the great art historian Aby Warburg’s unfinished
Mnemosyne Atlas project, in which he sought to trace how ancient designs appeared and reappeared across cultures and epochs. With each line of paper first drawn by hand, the works are also an experiment in negative space, as each line creates a three-dimensional negative in the completed work.