Pam Cooper
Pam Cooper · Source: New York Artists Circle · Rights retained by the original rights holders
- Medium
- Paper
- Practice
- Books, Drawing, Installation, Printmaking, Sculpture, Works on Paper
Pam Cooper emigrated from the UK in 1990 and became a US citizen in 2000. She spent her first four years in the US taking a BFA at Pratt Institute majoring in sculpture graduating in 1994. During her final year, an inter… Full biography
Biography
Pam Cooper emigrated from the UK in 1990 and became a US citizen in 2000. She spent her first four years in the US taking a BFA at Pratt Institute majoring in sculpture graduating in 1994. During her final year, an internship at Dieu Donne introduced her to papermaking. She makes all her own paper to the size and shape she requires for each project and also fabricates diminutive furniture for the installations. Found objects also play a large part in the work, often creating ideas for a piece. The pale parchment color of the paper and stylized drawings of the figures based on the images from old sewing patterns gives the work the look of times gone by but the subject matter is very much of today.
Artist statement
As a mixed media artist using primarily handmade abaca paper and simple printing techniques to create room-sized installations, sculpture, and miniature books I primarily focus on familial, social, and political issues concerning children. The work depicts the pressures that the children of today have to endure. The increased divorce rate and having to cope with a split family, growing up in a society that values beauty, dress, and popularity above almost anything else, and the vulnerability to predators and bullying due to the meteoric rise in social media. I have also been considering the historical treatment of what Western countries saw as problem children and more recently the thousands of unaccompanied minors arriving at our borders from Central America.
