Paper Weight: Works in Paper by Elsa Mora

Paper Weight is Elsa Mora’s latest exhibition of painstaking works made solely of paper and glue. Mora’s 2D and 3D pieces are inspired by the five cognitive faculties that form the mind: consciousness, perception, thinking, judgment, and memory.

For the last eleven years, Mora has explored the expressive potential of paper, while seeing the malleability of this material as a metaphor for the mind and its ability to morph and adapt. Manipulating light and shadow is an organic part of her process, as is her use of color, and, in some cases, the lack of it. 

Thematically, Mora is interested in studying the intricacies of the human brain, the wonders that it can produce, and its potential for destruction and chaos. Her work as a whole reflects on universal issues of identity, connectivity, and survival.

A recipient of the UNESCO-Aschberg Bursaries for Artists, Elsa Mora was born and raised in Cuba and moved to Los Angeles in 2001, where she lived until 2014. She currently resides in New York.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website 

Image: Elsa Mora Faded [5], 2018 , Paper and glue, 14.5” x 18.5” © Elsa Mora 

Image: Elsa Mora, One Hundred and One Notions, 2018, Archival paper and glue, Variable dimensions