Art truly comes in various shapes, sizes, and forms. Take Max Zorn’s masterpieces for instance. The Amsterdam-based artist uses a different kind of tool when creating his works of art.
Not the typical paintbrush and easel. Not the conventional pencil and sketch pad, either. Torn uses duct tape for his work. Yes, duct tape a.k.a. the I-need-to-secure-a-package kind of tape. And his works with the versatile tape are nothing short of stunning.
On Zorn’s website, he talks about his unique art process. He predominantly uses brown packaging tape, with which he sticks several layers in thin acrylic glass sheet (which you can get from somewhere like Simply Plastics).
Other than these two art necessities, he only needs a couple more: a regular scalpel and a lit window. The former is for cutting and shaping the tape layers to create the art and the latter is to bring the art to life. Through his readily available art tools, Zorn creates masterpieces with different shades, shadows, and even textures.
To fully capture the essence of his work, hanging the work on street lamps provide the total lighting impact the art needs to let it shine. But any source of light can be used to illuminate his works. With every light source comes different senses and appeals.
If you’re anything like me who’s completely amazed by the ingenuity of Zorn, your first question is somewhere along the lines of “what’s the inspiration behind the use of duct tape?” And like every clever artist who gained popularity though their rare works, Zorn discovered the use of duct tape by chance.
He wanted to produce an artwork that won’t get lost in the dark, specifically at night. Through the inviting and mystic street lamps in Amsterdam, he discovered that the tapes he used to fill and mark his drawings can provide the light that he was craving for.
Imagination and resourcefulness. These are the two words to describe Zorn’s work.
