Ann Weber Dumpster Dives in Rome

Ann Weber in Rome from Ann Weber on Vimeo.

Ann Weber is a California-based artist who currently works primarily in cardboard:

I started working in cardboard in 1991. Cardboard allows me to make monumental, yet lightweight forms, and eliminate the cumbersome process of clay. Frank Gehry’s cardboard furniture was my initial inspiration. My abstract sculptures read as metaphors for life experiences, such as the balancing acts that define our lives. “How far can I build this before it collapses?” is a question on my mind as I work. Ultimately my interest is in expanding the possibilities of making beauty from a common and mundane material.

She was recently a Visiting Artist at the American Academy in Rome where filmmaker Nick Heller followed her on her daily rounds, scavenging cardboard boxes out of dumpsters, collecting ideas from architectural details and Bernini sculptures and creating sculpture in her studio.