Vincent Fecteau’s Recent Work: The Art of Papier Mâché
By Carla and John B. Kenny with Michael Lobel

Text excerpted by Michael Lobel from Carla and John B. Kenny, The Art of Papier Mâché
(Philadelphia: Chilton Book Company, 1968)

Today the artistic possibilities of papier mâché have been rediscovered by artists, by interior decorators, by fashion designers. As a craft material for people with the urge to create, papier mâché is ideal. It is easy to work with, responds readily to the touch. It can be used to make larger-than-life sculpture, or to fashion rings for the fingers or ears. It gives an opportunity to explore and to try different methods of manipulation. It can be used for conventional shapes or ones that are way out, completely different from anything ever made before. It encourages wild, mad, uninhibited use of color.

And it is cheap! (What a blessing to hear that word today.) No equipment to install, no tools to buy (everything needed is at hand in the kitchen). Pastes and pigments cost little, scrap paper is free. One of the greatest values of papier mâché is the almost total lack of value of the things that go into its making. Papier mâché jewelry, for example, is not made of gold and its sparkle comes from bits of colored glass. It is gaudy and its gaudiness is its virtue.

What about taste? We all like to do things that will be considered in good taste, yet taste is a hard quality to define. It is such a personal thing; one person’s good taste is another’s horrible example. We must have the courage to do what we believe in, to make the things we like without fear of what people may say. There are no rules for creating a work of art – there can’t be. We must find our own guideposts.

The criticism we must heed is our own. As we work, we develop an appreciation of what is good. It is inevitable that some of the things we make will not turn out as we planned. They may be good (the happy accidents artists love). They may be bad; in that case we must have the courage to destroy them. Finally, we must constantly explore, try new ideas, new ways. We must be bold. Whatever we make, its greatest value is the joy it brings to us as we make it. To build something, to watch it grow, take form, acquire color, therein lies the deep satisfaction that leads to happiness.




Q&A 4.01.98

Is all this construction, deconstruction, or reconstruction?
I’m not sure. Maybe a bit of each.

Why foamcore and not cardboard?
Foamcore has a contemporary specificity that cardboard doesn’t. It’s slicker than cardboard and its edges sparkle. Collaged with an image of an object, a thick piece of foamcore becomes a kind of reconstituted version of the object, somewhere between the representation and the real..

What’s your interest in models, modelmaking, and the literal?
I like to think that the things I make are somewhere between the model and the literal. Models require interpretation and suggest something greater than themselves. Since I believe that art is really about the impossible, it’s easier for me to accept what I make if I think of them as models for what could be.

You seem intent to merge or confuse the theoretical with the poetic, and then undermine that with your choice of subject matter?
I’m interested in those places in between. I’m motivated by the seeming impossibility of poetry and the simple, unmistakable presence of meaning in the most unlikely places.

What compels you to use magazine adverts?
They are really specific. There is something exciting about making art from images that have already been so carefully considered by art directors, stylists, and photographers, and then re-inventing something in 3-D that had been designed for 2.

Are you intrigued by notions of idealism?
Yes. I believe art is magic. Like magic, I think that the impossibility of art is its power. I have very Romantic ideas about the pursuit of perfection; of the sublime. That’s probably when I’m fascinated with cults or fanaticism of any kind.

Collage is such an unlikely candidate for contemporary art-making; how did you come to it?
I was looking at a lot of design and architectural magazines...I’m easily seduced by advertising images and always wanted my work to somehow capture/reflect their intense but fleeting urgency and excitement. Eventually I decided just to use the images themselves.

Why not make larger sculpture?
So far the size has been dictated by the collage elements. I’m interested in making larger sculpture and have considered eliminating the collage, but I don’t want to lose that weird specificity that collage gives the sculpture.

Why art, and not design or architecture?
Right now, art offers me the most possibilities. Basically, I feel like I can do whatever I want. I am definitely interested in design and architecture, and would be curious to see if the things I’ve learned from making art could be applied to those disciplines, maybe as a collaboration.