Peter Callesen + Elsa Mora + Response

Peter Callesen, born in Copenhagen in 1967, is a Danish artist and author. Callesen is most well known for his talent in creating paper cut artworks which combining the minimalism of a big crisp white sheet of paper with the complexity of carefully cut and folded paper.

''A large part of my work is made from A4 sheets of paper. It is probably the most common and consumed media used for carrying information today. This is why we rarely notice the actual materiality of the A4 paper. By taking away all the information and starting from scratch using the blank white A4 paper sheet for my creations, I feel I have found a material that we are all able to relate to, and at the same time the A4 paper sheet is neutral and open to fill with different meaning. The thin white paper gives the paper sculptures a frailty that underlines the tragic and romantic theme of my works. The paper cut sculptures explore the probable and magical transformation of the flat sheet of paper into figures that expand into the space surrounding them. The negative and absent 2 dimensional space left by the cut, points out the contrast to the 3 dimensional reality it creates, even though the figures still stick to their origin without the possibility of escaping. In that sense there is also an aspect of something tragic in many of the cuts. They deal with dreams and the impossible. But the stairs and ladders represent a more fragile and almost sublime form. The trashy style in earlier works has developed into a more precise aesthetics. These works exist in the gap between the recognizable everyday object and the fragile and spherical condition and material in which they appear. The whiteness, the ideal pure copy of something real as well as the vertical direction coherent in most of my paper works, could also indicate the aspect of something platonic or religious.''

http://www.petercallesen.com/about/

He uses simple A4 white piece of paper, unless if he decides to create a missive piece of work, then he may go up to the A1 size, which is absolutely massive. What I particularly love about his work, is that he creates his works in such detail. It is difficult just through the use of a cutting knife to create such image out of an A4 piece of paper. Few of his works have a colored background such as the presented image below, perhaps he tries to imply what he felt at the time of making through the use of color, or tries to attach a color that would look the best to what he tries to emphasise, for example flowers in a vase at the bottom, due to it's red background they seem to be placed at home. Also the fact that he creates a background image that is large enough to cut out a smaller one in it, makes the work fascinating and memorable through being unique. Bending the pattern made the image into 3D, being a very interesting aspect of his works by being realistic through the use of an angel and skeleton, which are perfect in presenting the contrast between life and death. Yet still dreamy as no one has actually seen an angel before, nor a skeleton with wings, therefore implying he uses a metaphor to emphasise the meaning. The use of the formal elements makes the viewer more interested in his works, due to the uniqueness of the paper use and the meaning of contrast of Life and Death behind it, interests the viewers.

What I believe is truly going on in most of his works, is all about the contrast in between life and death. Perhaps he tries to tell a story that happened in his life through his works, perhaps someone special to him has passed away and tries to emphasize it through the contrast of life and death. I think this because most of the time he presents angels and skeletons, certainly a massive, contrastingly imagery between heaven and hell, linking to religious imagery. However, his overall meaning is about life and death, not heaven and hell, therefore the works of angels and skeletons present his wonder of whether these objects or places exist, or where his 'special someone' went to after they passed away. Imagery of life and death are the ones presenting a life object such as cut out human hand, and skeleton created from it, showing high contrast i have mentioned earlier. 

If I had to ask Callessen about his works, I would ask who are they about, what or who has inspired him to create such deep and meaningful piece of amazingly detailed works. Also the fact that they are so incredibly detailed, imply that his work is important and meaningful to him. 

Even without his statement above, it is not so hard to realise that his works is about life and death, the metaphor of this theme implies it easily, showing he used the simplest metaphor to imply something so deep and missunderstanding to humans. However, seeing the idea of fairy tale or dreamy imagery to present something so realistic is harder to realise for the viewer on their own. Myself as a viewer for example, at first I got the idea of life and death, sadness and happiness as well as of the contrast, yet not of the dreamy emphasis. On the other hand, if I had to link this idea to my theme of 'Memories', thinking from this perspective, this idea could add even more meaning to his work just as well as mine. His work could emphasise his memories of perhaps his parents/grandparents/siblings/friends/love passing away, presented in a form of a dream that he could have had, and simply presents them on A4 white paper.  His technique is very interesting, detailed and particularly unique, therefore perfectly liking to my theme of 'Memories', in terms of presenting a contrast of the past and the presence and of a memory and how it changed.

If I had to title the work, I would name it of what it actually presents. For instance, if one of his works was about his parents and the work presented two angels or skeletons, I would therefore name it 'mum and dad' or 'parents', purposely, to clearer imply to the viewer what was my inspiration as well as the meaning behind it. This is because now as a viewer I only know the meaning and understand why he used such metaphor, however I do not know the inspiration behind them. For instance, the image below of a vase filled with dying flowers. When looking at this image i see a clear link to a human/animal/plant life, dying flowers could emphasise how as long as you're alive, it is inevitable that death will come. The metaphor of dying flowers is very well used as I as the viewer understand the meaning or message he tries to imply through it, however what I don't know is what has inspired him to create this work. Was it someone close to him that has passed away? Was it his pet? Or was it his love?

This work could link to Elsa Mora. In her art she explores themes of self-containment, relationships, family and passion and draws inspiration from personal stories and experiences. Mora developed her art while she was looking after her autisic child. She soon realized the value of being extremely patient and consistent, and these qualities show in her incredibly detailed papercut works.From Elsa - "My goal is for each student to experience this fascinating medium in a fun way. My hope is that they will feel inspired to keep exploring this medium so they can create their own unique works of art. My hope is also that the students incorporate papercutting in their regular lives as a way of relaxation. But if I had to choose one thing that blows my mind that would be people. Think that we are millions of people on this planet, and each single person is unique, even if they are twins. I love different cultures, languages, the way we look, and the way we think and relate with each other.''
The technique in particular links to Callessen's work yet slightly changed. She uses colour in most of her works, presenting her memories, therefore linking to my theme of 'Memories'. I like how she links the imagery with the writing, such as in the image presented below of the red riding hood, it's obvious that it's the story due to the forest, little girl and the wolf, however the writing at the top 'Once upon a time', makes it absolutely clear to the viewers that she tries to present her childhood probably favorite story. However it does not exactly must be her favorite childhood story, could be her children's instead. On the other hand even though the technique is almost the same, the meaning behind the work is completely different from Callessen's, however still links to my theme. She focuses on presenting self-containment, relationships, family and passion and draws inspiration from personal stories and experiences, whereas Callessen focuses on the contrast in between Life and Death. However her meaning still links to my theme of 'Memories' as it's all about relationships, family and passion that we went through in our lifes, and that is what my theme is about, is about the experiences in our life that are so powerful and meaningful, presented in a form of a metaphor.





In my opinion, technique is the most interesting aspect of his work when looking first at the work. Personally, when I first saw his works, I was excited and incredibly interested from the first moment, which was caused by his unique yet simple technique. The idea of the technique use is amazing yet still created from a simple piece of paper that people use everyday, however he thought about it and created something amazing from it. That is only the impression the technique creates. The meaning has excited me about this work even more, those two aspects perfectly link with one to another, creating inspiration for people such as myself. Therefore I believe his work is very effective in what it was meant to show or emphasise from both, technical and meaningful aspects. The only issue with his work is that once again, as a viewer, I do not know the inspiration to his creations.
My class peers Johnny and Eva have also analysed his works and gave their own opinion about Callessen's works. Eva said how she particularly loves how you can't tell the size of the actual work when looking at the image of it. Which is true, she analysed the image below and said 'I love how you can't tell the real size'. Whereas Johnny said how detailed it is and loves the presentation of a story, in a story tale form,. Also how interesting the base of an image is, because you can't really tell what will come out from the cut parts, however when it comes together into one big piece, it all starts to make sense, creating something beautiful and amazing.



What I think is worth remembering about his work is his technique, because it is unique and very interesting as I have explained earlier. Also in my case, remembering the idea of life and death, particularly links to my personal memory of my Godfather, who at this moment suffers from incurable cancer and each time I see him his condition gets worse. This is what I have experienced over the summer, being the most powerful and meaningful memory to me, linking to Callessen's idea of life and death, painful, yet most essential memory to me.

I have experienced the difficulty of cutting paper myself when creating responses to his technique and meaning of focusing on life and death though a dreamy/fairy tale form, combined with my own theme of memories. First response presents a memory of myself being on a cementary, visiting my greatgrandparents, the angel and the grave of course emphasise the idea of a cementary, of life and death linking to Callessen's meaning, also links with his technique. Second image is a metaphor of time running out, this is presented by a burning out candle, that fades with time. This memory is ment to represent my uncle/godfather, who has uncurable cancer, this candle is a metaphor representing him, which is a very sad memory as each time I see him, his condition gets worse, therefore in my view the candle is a perfect emphasis to this memory. Same idea applies to the 5th and 6th image, with a candle burning out, yet instead of creating a storyboard, this time I've created a burned out candle from a new, just freshly burning candle, yet the idea and memory behind it is still exactly the same. Whereas the 4th image presents a couple dreaming of being together, emphasising that they are having a long distant relationship. What I hope implies it is the sunrise on one side and sunset on the other, presenting two different places at two different timings.