Yesterday I played on the concept of using the husks as paper. Today, I took that one step further by putting together a book made of the husks. I had learned a little from yesterday’s sewing debacle, but this time I couldn’t use rubber cement to hold the pages in place. I had to be very careful as I sewed, and was actually able to put it together without too much problem.
I decided that since this was a book made of corn, it should be about corn. There are four pages and a cover. This is what they read:
Cover: CORN: AN EXPLORATION OF TERMS
Page 1: CORN: Kurkuruz, Mais, Turgen, Turkischer Weizen, Welschkorn, Zuckermais, maiz, majs, djagoeg, יבלת ,אשבול תירס.
Page 2: “Measure the corn of others in your own bushel.” - Yiddish proverb
Page 3: Corn [korn]: 1: a North American ceral plan that yields large grains, or kernels, set in rows on a cob. Its many varieties yield numerous products, highly valued for both human and livestock consumption. Also called Indian corn (Zea mays) from family Grammineae; it was domesticated before 5000 BC although the wild ancestor is unidentified. “creamed corn.” 2: informal: something banal or sentimental. “the movie is pure corn.”
Page 4: “A Man of Knowledge like a rich soil, feeds / If not a World of Corn, a World of Weeds.” - Benjamin Franklin
This exploration moves into a more conceptual artwork based on corn. The book is made from corn, about corn, invoking the mental image of corn, the associations with the idea of corn, and more. I think this was more about exploring the associations with corn, which is something I might work into more in the future. For example, the Benjamin Franklin quote seems to associate corn with plenty, fortune and success, whereas the informal use of corn in the definition associates corn with banality and trite. What is it about this food that has such conflicting uses?
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