A month has passed? I knew I was being a bit derelict about the blog but this is terrible – apologies. I’ve been bookmarking things left and right to write up but haven’t found the time. Work has been very busy, I had my five year college reunion, my brother had a baby – I’ve been MIA. Let that not distract from the awesomeness that are the paper cuts of Noriko Ambe.
Noriko makes all of her cuts by hand, though I’m under the impression she pre-draws them – she prefers the natural look of the cuts to the machine made ones.
I’ve written on people who cut paper in the past but I do think Noriko’s work goes to a new level – as she describes in her artist statement, “When I am drawing or cutting lines, I am interested in observing the power of the changing growing shape. This dynamic shape becomes an entity in itself, ‘Another geography.’ In a sense, the empty space is myself, and the materials represent the present world.”
Many of her pieces are the mass with parts cut away (I do realize that this is only my perspective) but the above work is a mass itself of cut paper pieces. I like this opposite effect as well as the large scale of this piece.
She has a few series’ that she seems most comfortable in – one being layers of cuts inside typical filing cabinets. Interestingly, when I first saw them I thought – these look like the cross sections of humans I saw at the Body exhibit a few years ago and low and behold that was part of her intention!
I like them because…they look like they’re underwater – they are coral-like and tide-impacted wave-like to me and I like them because of that fact.
They also kind of look like an arial view of a dry riverbed to me – they’re open to interpretation that’s for sure.
Tags: 2D, 3D, geographical, monochromatic, natural forms, paper, paper cutting, repetitive, sculpture, topographical sculptures