MMU Contextual Project

We had a project that required us to research an artist and then write an essay on the artist. It was to be presented in a booklet with layout and design along with the 500 word written piece inside.

So, it's gotta look good and read well.

The essay:
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Peter Callesen has worked almost exclusively with paper in recent years. The Danish born artist, who had studied at Goldsmiths College in London, is known mostly for precise and intricately crafted paper pieces done on ordinary A4 sheets of printer paper. He astounds viewers with the endless possibilities that such a common material is capable of, causing disbelief and wonderment in each of his pieces.

Paper is the base of Callesen's works. He creates meticulously crafted works, that show in their complexity of form, yet the simpleness of having it formed through a single sheet of paper, whereby the “figures (in his work) still stick to their origin, without the possibility of escaping” is astonishing. There is also a point to be made over the commonality of the A4 sheet of paper, and how Calleson tries to prove the plethora of possibilities of this very simple material. He points out how people “rarely notice the actual materiality of the A4 paper” and that by “removing all the information and starting from scratch using the blank white 80gsm A4 paper... I feel that I have found a material which we are able to relate to... and therefore easier to fill with different meanings.”

There is an inherent playfulness in Callesen's works. Many involve “fantastic dreams of childhood” with a play of 3D and 2D, using both dimensions to tell two sides of a narrative, or sometimes as a visual pun. The negative space left behind on the cut out paper forms the 2D aspect of the work and the pieces are used to form a sculptural 3D piece that comes out of its flat plain, thereby forming the two visual forms – one of fantasy (2D) and the other breaching into reality (3D). These two images are usually juxtaposed to represent the lighthearted fairy-tale along with it's darker underlying tones.

Much can be said that his works are dream like and reflective. The way in which these sculptures break out of the 2D plain, exposing themselves to the third dimension, creates a fragility that we react to due to the delicate nature of the material. There is an astounding beauty in his carefully crafted piece such as “Half Way Through” depicting a skeleton sitting up, still attached to the paper, it is with the intricate details and the miniature scale that we find ourselves captivated by the piece as well as feeling precious towards it. More astonishing, is that the crafted sculptures are created with exactly the amount of paper cut out from the A4 sheet, as seen in “On The Other Side”.

The techniques employed in his A4 paper cuts are also used in his large scale work. These come in the form of huge installations which changes the reactions slightly when viewed. These works may seem like a scale up from his miniatures, but they contain twice as much detail as he has already included on a smaller scale. Notable works are life size and they evoke a sense of disbelief that they are made entirely out of paper, for example “White Window” which is as big as the windows found on the side of a cathedral, yet absolutely delicate when you realize the temporary nature of the material it has been built with.

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