And they said it wouldn’t last! They said that the printed word would become redundant, it would outgrow its usefulness as the growing number of online publications gained popularity. They were wrong, even though we commonly resort to the internet to look up telephone numbers and find our way around a city, the conventional printed telephone directory is still being issued all around the world and street maps and glossy fashion magazines are still being purchased. Now, what do we do with the outdated issues of these publications? Most of them end up in the recycling bin, but Italian paper artist Gemis Luciani has a much better idea, he transforms them into innovative works of art!
Working from his studios in Italy and Berlin, the artist has completed a series of 2D collage pieces and 3D sculptural forms through a complicated experimental method of manipulating colourful design magazines, hefty tomes of telephone directories and any other publication which catches his eye. Through his unique method of folding, decomposing and reassembling he takes the ancient art of origami to a higher level. By folding pages in on themselves, the text is hidden and the object adopts a new identity and visually emerges as an art form.
His 3 dimensional sculptural forms are created from thick wads of printed paper, twisted, contorted and teased into shape until he is satisfied with the end result. What is fascinating about many of these pieces is that the final result is not always dependent on the creativity of the artist, as he states that the ultimate result is left to gravity, the defining element of the appearance is ‘how they are going to fall into place once fixed to the wall’ - so if you can’t wait to see how the art of paper folding has evolved, check out the amazing work of Gemis Luciani!
