How paper compositions made in ancient Chinese technique conquered the Internet

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Contemporary art has many forms and interpretations, one of which is curly paper cutting. Such an interesting type of creativity is rooted in deep Asian history, and today it is reborn again thanks to the work of Lucila Biscione, which presents her crafts for everyone to see fans and critics on social networks.

Paper cutting has a long history. This art form originated in China. The first piece of paper-cutting art was found in Xinjiang, a province located in northwest China, around the sixth century. The Chinese invented paper around the second century BC, and it became available after Tsai Lun perfected the papermaking process.

This made paper cutting one of the most important forms of Chinese traditional art. Later, this art form spread to other parts of the world, with different regions adopting their own cultural styles. In China, paper cutting is also known as chuang hua, which means window flower, because the Chinese people pasted carved patterns on doors and windows.

In the Han dynasty, from 156 BC NS. to 87 BC BC, Emperor Wu's beloved wife passed away, and the emperor missed her very much. One of the priests cut out a picture of his wife from paper and hung it on the window of a dead woman. When night fell, he lit a candle, and the emperor in another room saw the outline of a paper-cut window that looked like his beloved wife. It soon became a real consolation for him.

Before the invention of paper at that time, the Chinese used other delicate materials such as leaves, silver or gold foil, silk and leather to carve hollow patterns. After the invention of paper, people realized that this material is much easier to work with than any other. As a result, paper has become a staple in the art of paper cutting.

The most common cutting tools are scissors and a knife. Using scissors or a craft knife is the most common way to cut paper. There are several different methods for cutting paper, including cutting and engraving. They are all basic skills in Chinese paper cutouts. Even cutting paper with scissors and a knife can produce different results.

The content of Chinese paper cutting includes people's daily life, architecture and landscape. The Chinese have long made paper cuttings to worship gods, express good wishes, and depict beautiful things. Usually, traditional decorative Chinese paper cutting has some meaning behind it. For example, a butterfly means doubling for all benefits, a lotus with a fish means continued wealth for the next year, a pomegranate indicates a desire to have a prosperous family with a large number of offspring. Chinese characters were also very often used in Chinese traditional paper cuttings.

In addition to the content, there is a constituent element that makes Chinese paper cutting unique - color. The Chinese believe that color is associated with shapes, but shapes cannot be seen without color. Therefore, they create a relationship between paper patterns and colors. Chinese paper cutting is considered a folk art. Its color also demonstrates features of folk art. However, here the color should reflect time (era, season, day and night, weather), location (indoor, suburb, mountains, water and desert), emotions (happiness, sadness, desire, hatred, appreciation and contempt) and ritual (wedding, birthday banquet, funeral and sacrifice).

Also, in traditional Chinese paper cuttings, people only use five colors (blue, red, yellow, white, and black) to represent every thing in the world. These colors are symbolic of specific things.

Five elements: blue - wood, red - fire, yellow - Earth, white - metal, black - water.

Five flavors: blue - sour, red - bitter, yellow - sweet, white - spicy, and black - salty.

Five ancient pentatonic scales: blue - mi, red - salt, yellow - do, white - re, black - la.

Six directions: blue represents East, red represents South, white represents West, black represents north and below, yellow represents the sky upward. Four seasons: blue - spring, red - summer, white - autumn, black - winter.

Over time, this technique spread throughout the world and outside the Celestial Empire, every nation and artist began to bring something of their own into this art, adapting it to their thoughts, feelings, views and experiences.

Lucila Biscione, who gave her preference to such a difficult but interesting technique and art form, was no exception, making it a part of her life., she says.

Lucila works with cut and illustrated paper to create surreal, dream-like scenes. Whether she creates a painting backed by tinted paper or a floating narrative displayed in a shop window, her work typically includes whimsical detail, from human-animal hybrids to magic.

Whimsical faces with fun hand-drawn hairstyles add that same emotional depth to every serial work of art, forcing you to delve into its essence.

According to the artist, inspiration comes to her in the moments that she experienced or is going through, returning to them again and again. Often these are fragments of dreams and stories heard from friends, which she transforms in her works, investing in them a piece of her soul and a message, which not everyone can solve. One gets the impression that at such moments, any of the characters seen in the picture can come to life and captivate the viewer after him, to where there are fictional worlds full of secrets and mysteries.

Some of her works resemble a fairy tale where good reigns, while others, on the contrary, are full of anxiety and worries. They seem to be shrouded in the very atmosphere that portends trouble. Fussy and frightened characters run from side to side. As if trying to escape from someone or something, but their attempts are in vain, in the end, they freeze in complete confusion and bewilderment. But one way or another, they are all so unique and interesting that each of them can be viewed several times, constantly finding something new and unusual in the details, as if the characters and their life have changed a little in a couple of hours, days or weeks. And what initially seemed to be sadness and melancholy looks like a pleasant thoughtfulness. Fear gave way to expectation and alertness, and attempts to escape became completely inappropriate, because as it turned out, there was no one to run from and nothing from …

Although Lucila's works, unlike world-renowned artists, do not cost millions, they are eagerly bought by connoisseurs of the beautiful and the unusual. However, some celebrities are difficult to understand at all. Sometimes they are ready to shell out a tidy sum and go to great lengths to get the desired work of art in their collection. All the details are in the next article.