Paper Sculptures—Part 1

On Wednesday, I had class with Colin, who probably owns more than 5 pairs of Cheap Monday jeans.

Anyways, we were doing paper sculptures in class! It was basically part of the assignment where we had to produce at least 10 black and white paper sculptures, using whatever techniques as creatively as possible.

I had missed his intro class the week before, so I didn't really get verbal instructions for what I was supposed to do. It was all pretty much hear-say from my classmates.

(P.S. My classmates had cutting mats that were BRAND NEW. Mine was all bruised and battered.)

So we went into the studio, settled down, then for like 10 minutes, we were just staring at each other, not knowing what to do. Colin just told us to do anything. Fold, cut, slice, weave, crush, twist, assemble, or whatever our brilliant minds can think of to do to the paper we have.

My classmates appeared a little lost. Some brought along some picture references, while most, including me, had nothing to refer to. However, paper art HAS ALWAYS BEEN A HOBBY OF MINE.

My very first memory of paper art would be during my primary school days, when those square pieces of flimsy art paper were so popular. I learnt how to fold paper cranes from my mother.

During Chinese New Year, my mother would make lanterns out of hong baos, which involved pre-folding the hong baos, sometimes having to slice them up as well. It all looked rather interesting, so of course I had a part in all that too.

Coming back, some time ago while working, I got bored and my hands got busy on a piece of scrap paper. I created creases of this square grid, then did like a zig-zag ribbed folding of the paper. That was when I was still enrolled in NYP. Paper art was essentially a pure interest that did not have any relation to my course.

It was quite stunning, the ribbed design. So during Colin's class, the first instinctive thing that came to mind was to re-create the ribbed pattern. It took a while for me to recall what I had to do. I was a little panicky when I got a little stuck. But I refused to believe that I forgot how to do it because folding the ribbed sculpture felt extremely close to my heart.

Ta-dah!



I began to feel more in tune with where exactly I'm 'heading' in Colin's class. He was damned impressed when he saw it, toyed with it a little, then asked me to teach him how I did it. After that he just exclaimed a few times, "That's great!" and "It's fantastic!" in a Scottish accent.

Colin's attitude is highly commendable. It simply makes me love art college more. Frankly, lecturers at NYP are rather stuck up, claiming to be 'from the industry', often giving 'valuable advice' from the industry's perspective. Whereas at Lasalle, tutors ARE designers who don't boast about their being in the creative industry.

I got more warmed up for the two more hours ahead.




A series of concentric arcs sliced into a circle. You pull it out et voila!, this organic, fluid web-like sculpture. Cutting paper is like second nature to me. Colin was so happy once again. I also got really excited, "You could put like a light bulb in the middle or something,"

"Wow, you could go work for IKEA," Colin joked.

He examined it, flipped it over, and transformed into a carrier bag of some sort. It was such an exhilarating start! I thoroughly enjoyed myself, even though that didn't seem to be the general sentiment.

A classmate told me that most of them people totally hated 3D modelling back in the Lasalle foundation year. It was literally 3D modelling, with wirework and all things interesting. In NYP, 3D modelling meant being in front of a PC(!!!) with one hand on the mouse, the other on the keyboard because 'that's the proper way to work".

Anyways, I just found it really strange how they could hate doing 3D modelling! I would have loved it! Last week, I told my classmates that I thought 3D modelling was damned cool and interesting, and got alienated.




"Hey people! I did this when I was at home!" I would tell my classmates. It would be damned hard to guess their general reaction.

I really like this because it feels very soft and flowy, yet really sturdy and strong.

Once again, all about feeling. Feel good, look great, I say.