Paper Architecture – Humoring the Goddess

Peter Callesen (-1967) is a Danish visual artist and writer.Callesen began studies in architecture, then switched to art, attending the Goldsmiths College, London and The Art Academy of Jutland, Aarhus, Denmark.Callesen works with A4 white paper, transforming it into playful sculptures, people, animals or nature motifs.The artist crafts each of his sculptures to closely resemble their real-life counterparts and also utilizes the space below his creations to tell the story.His sculptures explore the probable and magical transformation of the flat sheet of paper into figures that expand into the space surrounding them.Many of his artworks play with depth, and one of the ways he does this is by cutting up a sheet of paper in order to make the ground beneath a sculpture look cracked or textured.More of Peter Callesen’s creative papercutting can be found at https://www.petercallesen.com/.

Ingrid Siliakus discovered Paper (Origamic) Architecture by seeing work of the originator of this art form, Masahiro Chatani.Paper Architecture is the art of creating an object out of a single piece of paper.The process begins with drawing, then cutting, then folding, until a large and detailed piece is amassed. The patterns are made from scratch and carefully cut, and they evolve through trial and error.Since there’s no margin for error, Siliakus sometimes makes twenty or thirty studies before deciding on a final design.To design a pattern from scratch, Siliakus needs the skills of an architect to create a two-dimensional design, which, with the patience and precision of a surgeon, becomes an ingenious three-dimensional wonder.Using only a sharp X-ACTO® knife, she carves away at both loose leaf paper and books, transforming them into scenes from MC Escher, historic churches, stately buildings, and architectural day dreams.“Working with paper forces me to be humble, since this medium has a character of its own that asks for cooperation,” Siliakus says.“I experience an ultimate satisfaction at the critic 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.”