Meet the Artist Behind the Masking Tape

New exhibit runs through July 5

When you first see this new exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum, the flowing lines look like paint or ink.

When you look closer, the reality hits you -- it's black masking tape.

The tape unwinds within a large exhibit space, over doors, all the way around the room. The artist Sun K. Kwak says she can "control the power of the rip ... sometimes it is slow and sometimes fast." The branch-like lines she creates look smoth and continuous, but are the result of hundreds of rolls of torn tape.

Not every bit of tape was ripped. The center columns in the exhibit were first wrapped with the tape and then, using a scalpel, Sun etched the patterns.

Sun was trained as a painter but wanted to feel closer to her work.  She's experimented with wire, plastic pipes, and many other materials until the idea of using everyday tape jumped to mind.

When the exhibit ends, all of the tape will be balled up and thrown away.  Sun says, that is a "metaphor for the ephemeral nature of life."

Pretty deep, right?

The exhibit opened Friday and runs through July 5.

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