One Sheet Of Paper

Today I received an email from a friend with some amazing art work. She wrote at the beginning, "These are truly extraordinary." Then came the introductory text:

Entries for an art contest at the Hirshorn Modern Art Gallery in DC The rule was that the artist could use only one sheet of paper.

My first clue should have been that Hirshhorn was misspelled. The second clue was that no contest of any kind was listed on the Hirshhorn's site. A little digging revealed that this email is yet another one of those Internet "viral emails."

However, the sculptures are real, and they are the creations of artist Peter Callesen. These are amazing pieces; definitely worth a look. Here you can see what he did with single sheets of A4 paper, and here are some larger ones. Of his A4 Papercuts Peter writes:

My paper works have lately been based around an exploration of the relationship between two and three dimensionality. I find this materialization of a flat piece of paper into a 3D form almost as a magic process - or maybe one could call it obvious magic, because the process is obvious and the figures still stick to their origin, without the possibility of escaping. In that sense there is also an aspect of something tragic in most of the cuts. Some of the small paper cuts relate to a universe of fairy tales and romanticism, as for instance "Impenetrable Castle" inspired by Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale "The Steadfast Tin Soldier", in which a tin soldier falls in love with a paper ballerina, living in a paper castle. Other paper cuts are small dramas in which small figures are lost within and threatened by the huge powerful nature. Others again are turning the inside out, or letting the front and the back of the paper meet - dealing with impossibility, illusions, and reflections.

Half Way Through, 2006
Acid free A4 115 gsm paper, pencil, and glue

Go look and enjoy.

Peace,

Jeffri