Art Break
Su Blackwell
Official Website
Su’s book-cut sculptures are some of the most beautiful and intricate artistry I’ve ever seen. Truly inspiring and innovative on so many levels. Books are already a form of art if you think about it, but it’s as if she’s bringing them to life. The way she plays with light and shadow gives many of these sculptures a sort of magical, ethereal quality, don’t you think? Like you’ve inadvertantly stepped into the story, a la The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. I just love looking at them. Simply stunning.
Here is Su’s artist statement, taken from her website:
“Paper has been used for communication since its invention; either between humans or in an attempt to communicate with the spirit world. I employ this delicate, accessible medium and use irreversible, destructive processes to reflect on the precariousness of the world we inhabit and the fragility of our life, dreams and ambitions.
It is the delicacy, the slight feeling of claustrophobia, as if these characters, the landscape have been trapped inside the book all this time and are now suddenly released. A number of the compositions have an urgency about them, the choices made for the cut-out people from the illustrations seem to lean towards people on their way somewhere, about to discover something, or perhaps escaping from something. And the landscapes speak of a bleak mystery, a rising, an awareness of the air.”
Take a look at some of Su’s magnificent work below:
Clockwise from top left: Betty In Cloudland (image credit: Flickr user ~anj~), The Extasie, The Old House, The Secret Garden (finding the door), Alice In Wonderland, The Quiet American. (all other images from SuBlackwell.co.uk)
The one with all the glowing houses nestled into hills on her website is magical. I am jealous that her mind creates those things. The Alice in Wonderland is pretty incredible, though. How the HECK did she make those tiny teacups!?