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On each day spent cutting I have been collecting and counting the pieces that are cut out. These tiny pieces are stored in separate specimen jars not only to act as artefacts or remains of the paper cut but more importantly they are used to measure time. The amount of time spent each day is shown through the different amount of pieces that are in each jar. Here is an example of how I will display these jars in my degree show:
Each bottle will be labelled with the date, how many minutes were spent cutting on that day and how many circles were cut out.
So far I have been working on my piece for 50 days over 8,961 minutes which is equivalent to 149 hours and 21 minutes of cutting. I have been taking photos of the piece after every few days of working on it; here are some examples to show the growth of the cut area.
Thursday 18th February
Thursday 18th March
Friday 2nd April
Thursday 22nd April
On average I am able to cut a 10cm row of circles across the roll every week. On average I spend about 2 hours 54 minutes cutting everyday, although some days I can spend up to 5 hours working on the piece.
For my Degree Show I wanted to continue cutting circles into paper like I did with ’2,835′ but on a much larger scale. I brought a roll of chinese Wenzhou paper to cut into. This type of paper is known for its durability and is said to last for thousands of years. However, it is also incredibly delicate because it is only 30gsm – so it is very thin. This makes the process of cutting even more obsessive and time-consuming.
The Wenzhou paper I’m using is 97cm in width and then 10m on the roll. I will try and cut as many circles and work my way as far into the roll as possible before my dedline. I started cutting on Tuesday 16th February.
After experimenting with different printed papers, I decided to focus more on the actual process and time consuming nature of the circle cutting. Using a craft knife I cut tiny, repetitive circular patterns into a pure A3 white sheet. A structure of these connecting circles builds across the sheet so some of the original form has been kept but the paper also becomes extremely fragile. Cutting these circles into the paper gives the sheet a lace-like texture.
This process becomes very repetitive and is incredibly time consuming. I timed the number of minutes it took to complete this A3 sheet and then this became the title. So, this particular A3 sheet took 2,835 minutes which is equivalent to 47 hours and 15 minutes of cutting.
'2,835'
'2,835' Detail
'2,835' Hanging
I continued to cut into different types of paper during my final year at uni. The process of cutting shapes out of paper by hand has now been adapted as my method of working. I experimented with using a variety of papers as well as cutting out different shapes. This process of cutting by hand becomes very repetitive so I focused on just continuously cutting one shape to continuously cut: The circle.
These are some examples of the experiments I did:
Text Circles
Layered Train Tickets
Leftover Circles
I have always collected and used different types of paper to make artwork with but during my 2nd year at uni I chose to use paper as my primary material. I mainly used maps and books but transformed these printed sheets by cutting into the paper. This idea was to take away information so both the map and also text could no longer be read. These are some examples of my work:
Road Map Series - Detail
All the information was cut out of a road map, with only the roads left in. The maps are then layered together so it becomes confusing to read.
Read Between The Lines
All of the words are cut out of a book so the text becomes completely unreadable. The punctuation is left in to remind the viewer that words were once there.
