Wednesday, April 9, 2008

su blackwell's incredible paper sculptures



su blackwell’s work picks up right where i left off with fellow paper sculptor peter callesen. how these artists create these incredible, impossible works is beyond my comprehension. i’ve tried to imagine the thinking, the planning, the practicing and especially the actual cutting and folding that would go into one of these works but i simply can’t! i’ll just have to content myself with these pixillated visions of patient genius.

su takes plain old books and turns them into fantasy lands. some are contained in shadow boxes making them seem even more like little magical worlds. su’s artist statement is as lovely and mysterious as her work . . . “paper has been used for communication since its invention; either between humans or in an attempt to communicate with the spirit world. i employ this delicate, accessible medium and use irreversible, destructive processes to reflect on the precariousness of the world we inhabit and the fragility of our life, dreams and ambitions.

it is the delicacy, the slight feeling of claustrophobia, as if these characters, have been trapped inside the book all this time and are now suddenly released. a number of the compositions have an urgency about them, the choices made for the cut-out landscapes speak of a bleak mystery, a rising, an awareness of the air.”


and just to really drive home how stunning her work is, look at this short commercial . . . .

you know you want to see more, so head on over here

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