Packing tape is great — it seals your boxes shut and keeps them that way until somebody takes a chainsaw key to slice it open. Turns out, the humble utilitarian tape can also make for excellent art pieces and Max Zorn shows us how with his Packing Tape Art.
Being the largely uncultured (and oftentimes drunk) fellow that I am, I haven’t really been exposed to tape art before. As such, these incredibly gorgeous creations, which come out as sepia-toned, backlit scenes, sort of took me by surprise.
Max Zorn’s pieces are fashioned completely from brown packing tape, cut and laid out in various layers, on a plexiglass canvas that’s then held inside a backlit frame. Turning on the backlighting completes the piece, with the thickness of the layers along the canvas defining the amount of light that can get through, creating varying shades of color from an erstwhile industrial material. Seriously, these pieces are pretty amazing. What’s more amazing, though, is how the heck does he use tape and not get pieces of visible dirt stuck on it? That sounds like a whole lot of work to get right.
Originally a street artist, Max started making his tape art and hanging them up on street posts, using the lights on top of them to provide the illumination necessary for the pieces. Since he’s actually an artist who earns a living from his work now, you can buy the pieces (no need to walk around Amsterdam trying to find one of his hung creations) from his website. Pricing for the listed artwork on the website starts at €180.
Check out Max at work in the video below.
