It was a rainy day and we decided to visit one of the museums at the Palais de Chaillot, Cité, the architecture museum. It was the last day of of the exhibition and I am really glad we got to see it. It consists of various paper art focusing on architecture like the piece shown above from Stéphanie Beck. The name of the piece is Aviary and if you look carefully you can see birds inside.
The artists for this exhibition are from all over the world, and the art is very delicate and amazingly beautiful.
Here are some additional pieces by Stéphanie Beck. The top is Neighborhood Arrangement #1 Circle and the bottom is Neighborhood Arrangement #2 Maze. She lives in New York and was born in France. Here is a quote from her website:
“I am interested in ideas of fragility and transience and how these states exist in the architecture of the public and private spaces in which we live. I am inspired by our mental and physical experiences of spaces and buildings as we move through them and/or they change over time. In many ways I see buildings and structures as surrogates for ourselves and use them to investigate and illustrate our human frailties.”
Another featured artist is Ingred Siliakius, originally from Egypt/Nepal and now living in Amsterdam. Ingrid Siliakus first discovered paper architecture by seeing work of the originator of this art form Prof. Masahiro Chatani (architect and professor in Japan). He developed this art form in the early 1980's. Ingrid was instantly fascinated by the ingenious manner in which these pieces were designed and by the beauty they radiated. Ingrid studied the originator's work for some years and than started to design herself. Paper Architecture is the art of creating an object out of a single piece of paper! Statement of the artist (for the Holland Paper Exhibition in 2006):
“…Working with paper forces me to be humble, since this medium has a character of its own that asks for cooperation. It is a challenge to find this cooperation with each separate paper brand I work with. Working with paper the way I do, namely by means of cutting and folding creating paper sculptures, asks of me to work with meditative precision. Paper architecture does not bare haste, it is its enemy; one moment of loss of concentration, can lead to failure of a piece…' '…I experience an ultimate satisfaction at the critical moment when the paper, with a silenced sigh, surrenders and becomes a blade-sharp crease. The sound of the paper, which guides this surrendering, to me is incomparable…”
Another featured artist was Peter Calleson from Copenhagen, Denmark. In his website he describes his work:
“The paper cut sculptures explore the probable and magical transformation of the flat sheet of paper into figures that expand into the space surrounding them. The negative and absent 2 dimensional space left by the cut, points out the contrast to the 3 dimensional reality it creates, even though the figures still stick to their origin without the possibility of escaping. In that sense there is also an aspect of something tragic in many of the cuts.”
Béatrice Coron was represented by the above works. French-born artist Beatrice Coron specializes in making engaging artwork inhabiting a world between dreams and reality. These days her work can be seen in museums, in subways, on t-shirts, cups and other merchandise. She has published art books and exhibited her work all around the world.
And, of course, dresses. Like the rest of her art, these dresses are multilayered and narrate a distinct story. She refers to these stories as “artist books.”
I really liked these collages made from scraps of “found” paper by Mathilde Nivet who was born in Bourges, France. The pictures give a 3-D look to the montage.
This piece with rear illumination also seems quite special. This is a quote from her:
“I came to the paper medium by chance during my studies of the textile school of applied art. I was interested in the theme of the letter and writing, so I started handling envelopes and gradually explored the many possibilities offered by this material. Now it's been almost 10 years since I have worked on paper and I am not bored. Perhaps it is because of the incredible plasticity of the material that allows a constant passage between 2D and 3D.”
I have also added some works that were not in the exhibition. This top is the first Mathilde Nivet advertising illustration, with photography by Ludovic Bollo. The middle is a photo of her working with Ludovic Bollo. The bottom is a Christmas Window display done for the jeweler Marie Hélène de Taillac.
Altogether, we found this exhibition quite beautiful and an opportunity to see original works by artists we have heard of but never seen. We found it interesting how commercially viable this art form has become. Unfortunately the exhibition is now closed, but look for these artists in the future.
References:
Stéphanie Beck: http://www.stephaniebeck.org/
Ingred Siliakius: http://ingrid-siliakus.exto.org/
Peter Calleson: http://www.petercallesen.com/home/
Beatrice Coron: http://www.beatricecoron.com/
Papercut Dresses: http://inspir3d.net/2011/10/31/papercut-dresses-by-beatrice-coron/
Beatrice Coron, Ted Talks: http://www.ted.com/talks/beatrice_coron_stories_cut_from_paper.html
Mathilde Nivet: http://www.mathildenivet.com/
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