Polly Verity

Artist Statement
Marisa Papen is an inspiring and fearless artist and so I was excited when I was approached to join the project. Wet-folded paper as a medium was perfect for the Flowers of Life project. The curves that are generated are voluptuous, voluminous, offering up all the diverse and beautiful possibilities within which one becomes mesmerized in celebration of this natural life giving form. The process of working on the piece was a meditation on the wonder of the vulva, the yoni, the labia, those lips of joy. As the artist, my main role is to appreciate and then accentuate accidental curves and fix this soft form in space. During my research, I was intrigued by the broad diversity of vulvas. Only when I relaxed and stopped trying to be too literal was the form able to be gently coaxed into being.

Daughter of artists, Polly Verity grew up in an environment where there were plenty of art materials on hand to experiment with. Her step-grandfather,Eric de Mare wrote a book “Your Book of Paperfolding”. Although origami has been practiced for hundreds of years, a pure abstract tessellated form is relatively recent, the Bauhaus first experimenting in 1920’s. Polly’s paper folding designs follow in this vein, creating low relief repeat geometric 3D patterns. More recently, Polly has been wet-folding watercolour paper to create portraits. Although you wouldn’t know, the years of study in the geometric transformation of paper informs these softer sculptural works.There is an infinite variety of forms that can arise from this method and Polly chooses folds that are particularly photogenic and striking. The texture of the paper gives a feeling of the surface of stone and the simplicity of line, the feeling of discovering a timeless sculpture from antiquity.


︎ polyscene