For an assignment in a bookbinding course I took at The Academy of Fine Arts in Beirut, we were asked to recreate the writing tool. Given unlimited possibilities, and inspired by natural fractals, I challenged myself to design a paintbrush that would render painting a straight line impossible.
Operating the brush like a puppeteer, the user’s wrists are tied with a piece of waxed string that links their wrists to the body of the T-shaped leather brush with human hair bristles at its end. With the help of the physical properties of the leather body, and the imperfection of the human-hair brush tip, the brush would be suspended and the contraption would be impossible to finely control.
Untitled (Puppet Brush Test 3), 2017 - Ink on paper - 35 x 25 cm
Untitled (Puppet Brush Test 5), 2017 - Ink on cloth - 50 x 35 cm
Test 5 was as used as a cover of a coptic-bound sketchbook for the same course.