Tape, be it scotch tape, packing tape, or duct tape, is a major part of our day to day life here on planet earth. We use it when we paint our walls, we use it to pack boxes, and we even use it to fix leaking pipes. What surprises me is that despite the many uses we’ve found for the stuff, artwork isn’t really one of them.
Sure, we use it to mask out sections of a painting every now and again, but surely we can do better than that, right? Of course we can, or at least one of us anyway. You see, there’s a gentleman by the name Max Zorn (is that your real name?) whom – using only brown packing tape, a scalpel, and Plexiglas – creates fantastically detailed scenes and portraits of all sorts of things. I’m going to show you how he does it, but before I do, check out a small sampling of his work first.
Tape Art is Rather Noir
The following scenes remind me of something out of a hard-boiled detective novel, and you know what? That’s awesome, and Mr. Zorn is awesome too. I have a sudden urge to go back and re-read James Ellroy’s The Black Dahlia. One can never have too much noir, even for one such as myself living in a French speaking city. The French gets a little old, but the noir? Never.
The Making of the Making…
In short, the answer is layers… lots and lots of layers, just like an artist working in Photoshop. It’s impressive to see the time lapse, and I tip my fedora to the impressiveness of Zorn’s dedication. I can’t imagine the creation process being particularly short, nor easy.
More Zorn!
Yes Max, I’m just going to call you Zorn from now on. For those of you that are not him, head over to his official website and take a look at all of his other fantastic tape artwork. I’ve only included a small sampling here, and some of the other stuff is truly awesome. Zorn, keep up the fantastic work.
