Shredders

This is one of a set of prints I am working based on the shredded paper.

Shredders have become part of the household and they reflect our concerns about identity theft and fraudsters rummaging though our rubbish bags.

The inspiration for one of the first shredders came from a pasta maker. The remnants left by the shredders come in several different shapes. Each shape represents a different level of security. In other words, some are more easily reassembled than others.

Strip- cut, cross or confetti-cut or diamond-cut particle-cut, disintegrators, hammermills, pierce and tear and grinders are the options.

At the time of the Iranian Revolution in 1979, the staff of the US embassy shredded sensitive documents (strip cut) just before the building was taken over. The new Iranian government employed carpet weavers to reassemble together the ‘noodles’  that were left behind.

When Enron employees shredded incriminating documents, some of them made a mistake.  They fed the documents into the shredders the wrong way so the strips followed the lines of text and the pages were much easier to reconstruct.