Rebirth of the Synthetic
RETURNING WAX PAPER TO ITS NATURAL STATE
According to a Hasidic Jewish folktale, the mystic rabbi Zusya taught his followers that, in the afterlife, he would not be asked, “Why were you not Moses?” but rather, “Why were you not Zusya?”23 The rabbi invites all who hear his preaching to seek and fully embody their true, unique essence.
A material as processed as wax paper has undergone countless transformations and disintegrations since the days when it was part of a tree in the forest. Has such a material lost its essence, its natural state? And is it possible to return it to the condition from whence it came?
Through a technique known as “pleating,” Jacy Diggins has compressed the cellulose fibers used to make wax paper back into their natural state—but not entirely. Her creation appears cavernous and ethereal; a far cry from the original form that once stood in an open-aired woodland.
While the sculpture is elemental in appearance, earthy and almost fungal in shape, the paper has not been returned to its embryonic origins—it has simply undergone yet one more transformation. Some would call it a resurrection or regeneration.
The process brings to mind a line from Bob Dylan’s song, “Mississippi”: “You can always come back, but you can’t come back all the way.” —DJS
Husk by Jacy Diggins. Photograph courtesy of Mingei International Museum, Andrew Scoggins, photographer