Craft Australia presents Cutting in: Comparing Sino-Australian paper-cutting practice as part of the Craft Australia Emerging Writers Program. The program has been initiated to encourage emerging craft writers to voice their views and opinions on the state of play.

Whilst shopping in Weifang, a store-owner leaned over to me and remarked 'He's very handsome,' referring to my partner, to which I replied 'Really?' Accompanying me on a research trip across regional China, Gordon had been attracting unanimous stares; non-Chinese appearing in the flesh are a rare spectacle despite their frequent presence on billboards. Could this wonderment of the exotic also apply to Australia's recent enchantment with the paper-cut?

Accompanying the elevation of other crafts such as knitting and basketry, paper-cutters are currently considered amongst Australia's foremost contemporary practitioners. The recent naming of Sangeeta Sandrasegar amongst Australia's top fifty by Australia Art Collector is testimony. Similarly, Artlink recently profiled the paper-cuts of Emma van Leest. The paper-cuts of Kate Cotching, Megan Keating and my own practice, for that matter, have also attracted sustained interest.

However is it the meticulous craftsmanship, their apparent newness to Australian society or genuine cultural currency that gives them significance? The ascent of the paper-cut, in the context of Australian art, is unlike other crafts.

As opposed to knitting, the appeal of paper-cutting stems from relative obscurity and exclusivity. Deemed popularly accessible yet challenging to the intellect¹, Fiona Hall engenders viewers with a sense of familiarity. Characterised by her use of 'shadow play', Sangeeta's artworks are described as breathtakingly ornate², delicate and visually stirring³. To what extent Australian audiences have the necessary schemata, to enable a more sophisticated reading, is uncertain.

Paper-cutting spread from China via the Silk Road, arriving in France during the 18th century where it attained the name: silhouette. Permutations of the craft exist around the world including Japanese, Dutch and South American variations. Preceding the creation of paper the technique was developed using leather, gold and silk. One of the oldest accounts of the craft's application dates back to 187 BC⁴. After the death of Emperor Wu's favorite concubine, a shaman was said to have summoned her presence by casting a shadow using a paper-cut.

Whether used to mark special occasions, tell stories or attract good luck the creation, exchange and display of paper-cuts remain an integral part of Chinese life. The technique was a pastime of my grandmother and aunts. Growing up in South-East Asia, it was an extra-curricular activity for my mother at school. Only during the Spring Festival can the extent of China's affection towards this folk art be genuinely appreciated.

Testament of its embedment into the Chinese psyche, the paper-cut features as backdrops to television talk shows and billboard advertising. They occupy windows of all kinds; windshields of vehicles and revolving doors are amongst the unlikely canvasses. The technique that was once applied to Song Dynasty ceramics⁵ now features as children's animation.

However within the context of Chinese contemporary art, the application of paper-cuts is largely overlooked. This is despite the Shanghai Biennale 2004 featuring a survey of over 14 000 paper-cutters⁶; it remained relegated to the category of 'Folk Art'. Is this simply a case of over familiarity? One could ascertain that the primary inhibitor to the ascent of Chinese paper-cutters is the improbability of exposure to new ideas.

I was fortunate to meet Chen Jie Rong, who is appraised by the Guangdong Art Museum as amongst the finest craftsmen of our time. Starting at the prodigious age of seven, now thirty, he is a considerable forty years junior to his contemporaries. Whilst drawing on influences ranging from manga to Renaissance painting, both exerting a presence within the Chinese media, he admits to having little time for experimentation due to the demands for his more traditional designs.

Inheriting the trade from his grandparents, Chen currently enlists his mother-in-law and two nieces for production. Dialogue with other practitioners is restrained, as paper-cutting skills are preserved in the sanctity of the family unit. No access to computers and limited access to arts literature place further barriers to cultural exchange. He also prefers purity to pragmatism.

Whilst all of the paper-cutters I've met share an absolute dedication towards achieve technical supremacy, Xu Yi Fang keenly embraces technology. Based in Shangdong province, Xu was engaged to instruct me on traditional paper-cutting techniques. She regularly employs the use of photocopiers, staplers and Stanley knives. Several days can be expended on replicating one design, largely owing to the bulkiness of her equipment. To her, the dexterity allowed by my scalpel was a revelation.

Whereas Chinese practitioners are, by-and-large, born into the trade, it's arguably becoming a medium of choice in Australia. In many instances, Australian visual artists paper-cut in reference to their cultural heritage. Ranging in influence from Japanese manga comics to Bollywood , Sangeeta's artworks 'negotiate erotica' across a diversity of cultures. Informed by Asialink and Australia Council residencies, in Beijing and Tokyo respectively, Megan Keating's layered motifs investigate Australian perceptions of war . As a point of distinction, Australians paper-cutters are infusing their own eclectic ideologies.

Reflective of the international arts scene burgeoning in Beijing, the tastes of Chinese audiences are becoming increasingly sophisticated. How would the familiarity, albeit quaintness, of Australian's interpretation of this folk art bode?

Pamela Mei-Leng See
July, 2006

During the Spring Festival period 2006, Pamela Mei-Leng See travelled to eight cities along China's eastern coastline documenting craft practices. Supported by an Australia China Council General Funding grant, her research is informing the development of artistic activities in Brisbane and regional Queensland. A graduate of a Bachelor of Visual Arts from the Queensland College of Art and a Masters of Business (Communication Studies) from the Queensland University of Technology, Pamela is a former Events Coordinator/Artistic Director of the Mackay Festival of Arts. Her paper-cuts are currently touring nationally as part of Echoes of Home: Memory and Mobility in Austral-Asian Art.

Footnotes

1. Grishin, S (2005). 'Fertile Obsessions', Australian Art Review [online]. http://www.artreview.com.au/profiles/artists/article887.asp, viewed 27 March 2006.
2. Angelora, D (2004). 'Heroine chic', Sydney Morning Herald, 2 January [online], http://www.smh.com.au/cgi-bin/common/popupPrintArticle.pl?path=/art, viewed 24 March.
3. Morrell, T (2006). '50 most collectable artists', Australian Art Collector, vol. 13, no. 35, pp. 123.
4. Zhang, D (1989). The Art of Chinese Papercuts, Foreign Language Press, Beijing, China, pp. 2.
5. Zhang, pp.12.
6. Haupt,G & Binder, P. 'The Mapping of Yanchuan Country Paper-cuttings', Shanghai Biennale 2004, http://universes-in-universe.de/car/shanghai/2004/tour/e-img-06.htm, viewed 24 March.
7. Kulber, A (2004). Savvy New Australian Art Catalogue, QUT Art Museum.
8. (2005). 'Asian Traffic', Asia-Australia Arts Centre, http://www.4a.com.au/asiantraffic_sangdrasegar.html, viewed 25 November.
9. Gregg, S (2005). 'December Saints', Artlink, vol. 25, no. 3, pp. 90.