Complex Basics

27 Oct 2010, Posted by Kylie in art,design, 0 Comments

As the world continues to move toward a digital life, it may be nice to take a moment and appreciate the craft and painstaking work of those who create in a medium invented around 2000 years ago. Peter Callasen is a Danish artist who works primarily in large sheets of white paper–merging a 2d experience with a 3d experience. Callasen chooses to work in paper because as he says, “it is probably the most common and consumed media used for carrying information today,” but we “rarely notice the actual materiality” of it. His pieces often show the remains of the paper his characters and objects emerge from thus giving these characters dual lives.

In his piece titled “Half Way Through,” Callasen allows his figure to emerge from its 2 dimensional self, but only in a dead skeletal form. This somewhat tragic fate is repeated in many of his works, the figures emerge from the flat 2 dimensional paper only to realize they are skeletons, about to fall to their deaths or be crushed by an avalanche of snow. They are as Callesen states “small dramas” in a threatening landscape. The fragility of the paper speaks to the fragile nature of his figures.

Sources:  www.petercallasen.com