Tom Friedman

Untitled-paper figure lying down

There-paper cube splat
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Untitled-toothpicks

material
he gets his art supplies from drugstores, candy stores, the human body, and the supermarket.
friedman relentlessly invents intricate objects out of a range of household materials, such as styrofoam, masking tape, pencils, toilet paper, spaghetti, toothpicks and bubble gum. his work is obsessively and painstakingly crafted and is both
beautiful and playful. friedman's ability to transform common objects into something new, his devotion to material perfection, the way he conceptualizes the action of the artisan, enables him to elevate the ordinary to the status of art.

mental and physical manipulation
Friedman's art it is linked to 1960s conceptualism, arte povera and minimal to land art. but his vision and working method goes beyond these historical precedents creating its own unique visual language. that of the minute and microscopic, in which his investigations focuses on the smallness of things. all of these works are informed by a centred internal logic that reveals the tacit systems at work in our daily lives through which we funnel our physical and mental realities.

sculptures balancing in a precarious equilibrium may appear paradoxical, because of the unusual materials they are
made from: a ring of plastic cups; a dense mass of pencil sections, or the sculpture obtained by wedging some 30,000 toothpicks in order to create a fantastic geometric construction that recalls the
structure of a starburst. 'a mentality based on atoms and tiny infinitesimal fragments,' according to germano celant, cuator of the exhibition 'leaning toward the sublime, magical atmosphere of a science fiction film by lucas or spielberg.'

http://www.designboom.com/portrait/friedman.html