Penthouse #50 1969

John Chamberlain, that master of repurposed metal, made this, Penthouse #50, out of crushed paper. It's all about the crumple, the fold, the sheer physical transformation of something flat into something with volume and presence. What I love is the material itself; the humble paper, now a complex topography of ridges and valleys. The light catches on the edges, highlighting the deliberate act of destruction and reconstruction. Look at how the paper spirals in on itself, like a tightly wound spring. It's almost like the material is holding onto some internal energy. Chamberlain really takes the chaos of the street and turns it into something, dare I say, beautiful. It makes me think of Franz Kline's gestural brushstrokes, only here the gesture is a full-bodied crumple! It reminds us that art can be found in the everyday, transformed through process.