The Art Club has proposed a new project here at PVHS – zip tie artwork. These art pieces are made up of hundreds of zipties, of many colors and lengths, conjoined to make intricate designs and shapes.
Work on the project has been going on for a few weeks now, with the students making nature-focused art pieces. The project is expected to be approved before spring break. The students have created flowers, jellyfish, bees and other nature-oriented structures.
“The inspiration for the installation idea was from an artist who’s a sculptor. Her name is Sui Park,” Mr. Bernholdt, art teacher and the leader of the project, said. “She creates these really cool ziptie sculptures just by zipping [zip ties] together to create different forms, usually that are inspired by nature in some way.”
The work is a project that is part of the 3D sculpture unit in the club, also meant to help build portfolios for the students. The zip ties were donated from HellermannTyton, one of the leading manufacturers of the connectors. They donated 88,000 ties to the school, over $3,000 worth. All of these are different lengths and colors to create the intricate designs.
“I thought it was extremely unique because I’ve never heard of having zip ties as an art form before. I was really excited to kind of expand my horizons in terms of different art forms,” said Aislinn Pepper, a 10th grader working on the project.
These art pieces are also to inspire students in the younger grades to try new things in art and also try new methods to create artworks.
“It allows you to definitely think in different ways, [and] I definitely like seeing the final [outcome] of what I’ve actually made,” Mya Heffelfinger, a student in Art Club, said.
These pieces are expected to be placed in the main cafeteria stairwell.