If you don’t have any plans for next weekend and you would like to see some unusual Star Wars-related art, head to London. Starting on the 8th August and ending on the 16th August, the 5th Base Gallery will be hosting an exhibition of scenes from the films depicted through the technique of kirigami: whole panoramic scenes cut out of a single sheet of paper.
The author of the exhibition (fittingly named “Cut Scene”) is a talented kirigami artist and a Star Wars fan Marc Hagan-Guirey aka Paper Dandy. After gaining unexpected attention with his kirigami exhibition based on scenarios from classic horror movies (“Horrorgami”), with the incentive of many fans he has created a set of iconic scenes from Star Wars. In the upcoming exhibition, you will be able to see twelve different scenes, including Han Solo in the carbonite freezing chamber, the battle of Hoth (my personal favourite), Jabba’s sail barge complete with the sarlacc pit, and many others. Each of these pieces is created just by cutting and folding a single piece of paper (Marc usually works with a simple A4 sheet), no gluing, no other tampering. Only a sharp blade and a pair of nimble hands.
Each piece in the exhibition will be put in a light box and you can stop and admire the minute details of every one. And to think this is nothing but your average A4 paper sheet, transformed into a work of art.
The whole project was funded on Kickstarter by the fans (since it is not an official Star Wars exhibition, Marc could not ask money for it). I wish Marc best of luck with this exhibition and happy fans, who could then continue with their support for future projects. Because I certainly hope Paper Dandy’s work does not end here, but rather starts here!
