Power Tower, 2009
Cut card stock, gator board, and glue
Power Tower, a dizzyingly ornate sculpture extending upwards over ten feet, is constructed entirely from sheets of hand-cut, multi-colored cardstock. Michael Velliquette gives the flat paper dimensionality through the bending, coiling, folding, rolling, and successive layering of intricately cut pieces, resulting in a dense explosion of color, form, and texture. With its stacked, totemic verticality and ceremonial ornamentation, this piece resembles a multi-armed deity adorned with honorary garlands and decorative flora. The bounty of autumnal vegetables surrounding the base of the structure is suggestive of a ritualistic offering, further infusing it with spiritual significance. The tower also revels in the fanciful and carnivalesque. Embellished with feathered, scalloped, and ruffled paper, its armlike appendages project outward onto the horizontal plane. Flowers and butterflies burst from every surface and the mischievous heads of tiny creatures peak out in all directions, eyes bugging and tongues wagging.
Pulling from an eclectic set of sources that reference both the devotional and the magical, Power Tower also has a Pop sensibility—from its playfully robust color palate to the cartoonlike lightning-rod decals. The profusion of flowers, butterflies, and other vegetation speaks to a world of abundant vitality and pays homage to the imagery of the Garden of Eden. The serpentine bodies wrapped around the sculpture’s extended arms further lend credence to this allusion. With its flamboyant imagery, Power Tower offers a refreshingly hedonistic aura of abundance during a time of economic scarcity.
Power Tower (detail), 2009
