How to Make a Paper Plate
Instructions
I like doing paper plates. I started doing them when friends brought me sweets or tortellini on paper plates. And when my friends discovered the way in which I was using them, once the more obvious gifts — intentional and edible — had been consumed, they began to bring me sweets or tortellini on whole stacks of empty paper plates. I never use plastic plates or plates of which the cardboard has been plastified. Over the years I have made many paper plates. In these difficult times, I find it a pleasurable and soothing activity. I use many things … stamps, labels, scraps of letters, all kinds of small objects … whatever works…
“Soap opera Nr. 3 – sovu ni viti” I have made photos of the operation, step by step – My plates are always double-sided – They can be hung on a wall or placed on a shelf or a table – The ideal solution would be some sort of vitrine that makes both sides visible …
For “Soap Opera” I glued tiny bars of hotel soap to the plate …
So it’s a plate with a double use: it’s a work of art, but the soap can be pressed into service, if an emergency should arise….
Bio
Berty Skuber works with a wide variety of media from drawing to collage, video, photography, painting, objects, artist’s books and installations. She has remarked that her work “consists of loose accumulations and subtle events that are pulled together over extended periods of time, and which slowly interweave with one another.” She has also described her work as an attempt to create a personal, fantastic encyclopedia.
Since 1970, she has regualarly exhibited both in Europe and America and her work is to be found in numerous public and private collections both in Italy and abroad, among others: Museion, Bolzano; MUMOK, Museum für Moderne Kunst, Vienna; Museum Albertina, Vienna; Museum Ferdinandeum, Innsbruck; Bibliothèque National de Paris; Getty Museum, Malibu; Sackner Archive, Miami; Center of Contemporary Art, Warsaw; MART, Rovereto; Fondazione Mudima, Milano; Heinrich W. Risken Stiftung, Bad Rothenfelde; Museet for Samtidskunst, Roskilde; Parkhotel Laurin, Bolzano; Deutsche Bank, Frankfurt; Harlekin, Wiesbaden; the Autonomous Province of Bolzano/South Tyrol; The Emily Harvey Foundation, New York and Venice.
Born in Bolzano, she currently divides her time between Prackfolerhof (a farm in Southern Tyrol) and Venice.
Further information can be found at
