Emma Hardy Exhibition

The Party: about a modern day mad hatter.

As a response to the political climate and, being a British citizen and unable to vote in the 2004 elections, I decided to create the characters of the Mad Hatter's Tea Party.  This was the largest and most thematically organized piece I had created.  While I controlled the creative aspect, I was joined by a dozen volunteers in the creation of "The Party."   

The heads of the characters are a result of a couple of years of development of my own method of sculpting with brown paper tape.  I developed this method of sculpting as an answer to a sculptor's challenges of ease, flexibility, durability, weight, and of course, cost.  I have found it a material that is simple to construct, finish, and carry, thus it was an obvious choice for the creation of these characters.    

Each head required between 40 & 60 hours to complete and were all sculpted over a three month period.  As a base I used foam core, aluminum wire, newspaper, and PVC pipe.  The paper tape was then applied in layers, molded, dried and finally painted.  They were then mounted, along with the PVC-framed costumes on backpacks.  The Mad Hatter's Tea Party has been paraded in three states for thousands of people in both organized and "guerilla art" outings.    

Over the past 5 years I've created dozens of other paper tape sculptures including a giant polar bear, masks and other characters.  I am most drawn to creating functional art, work that can be worn, walked on, paraded and enjoyed by many in varied environments.  

I was born in Lincolnshire, England. I earned a BA in Sculpture at the Wimbledon School of Art in London. After, I traveled extensively before settling in Colorado where I've lived for nearly 20 years.  

- Emma Hardy

Closing reception, Friday September 4, 6-9pm