Paper cut with an X-ACTO knife is one of those commonalities which seems to be shared between most, if not all, of the creative educations. It’s something that seems easy. And it continues to seem easy all the way up to the first time that knife touches paper and the material offers its own unique resistance. The fact that paper has a grain is not something immediately apparent; the delicacy needed to work well with it is a skill in its own right, separate but necessary to the artistic skill also required.
The exhibition, ‘Bloom: Cut Paper by Bovey Lee’ was presented by Hugo Boss and on display in the International Finance Centre in Shanghai from 13 to 16 January. In it, dozens of the cut paper artist Bovey Lee’s recent works in the traditional Chinese medium of Xuan paper were displayed. Lee states that,
…these works tend to be influenced by the urbanisation happening in China which is truly astonishing, especially the dramatic changes I witnessed in Beijing in 2010 after my first visit there in 1989. China’s urbanisation fits with the themes of power, sacrifice, and survival that I explore in all of my works.
