A participatory art exhibit commissioned by Culture Days for the National Cultural Congress, 2013. Display cases (with internal LED lighting) available for rental or purchase.

Stack them, unwind them, sculpt them, glue them, magnetize them, photograph and animate them. Arrange the works into a tableau scene or narrative. Take rubbings and make prints. The sky’s the limit.

In the 200+ years since its popular appearance, the paper clip has been reinvented, redesigned, and repurposed for many ends. An item you may find in homes as well as businesses, in schools as well as hospitals, serving the young, the old and everyone else in between… From holding sheets of paper in the desired sequence, to picking locks, to re-setting digital devices gone awry… The lowly paper clip has quietly facilitated cultural progress, disruptive access and knowledge exchange from the Industrial Era to today’s Information Age.

In the same vein, relating to Culture Days’ themes of “create – participate – celebrate,” this interactive exhibition invites you to contemplate and continue the common paper clip’s metamorphosis.

May 23-24, 2013, Art My Paper Clip featured artist-animateurs demonstrating ways of working with paper clips and helping Congress attendees create their own paper clip art to add to the in-person and online exhibition.