The white walls and ceilings of Marianne Eriksen Scott Hansen's studio were bursting with giant handmade paper flowers last summer.
However, she dismissed the visitors' surprise and said, “Every child in Denmark enters the cutting of the paper when she can operate the scissors.”
Paper Artist, 61, was born in northern Denmark and earned a Master's degree in Fashion Design from the Royal Academy of Arts in Danish. She had a cult label with early aughts called daughter style. Her signature slashed tee — scissors in the hands, not laser cut — was worn by rock and pop stars such as Stephen Tyler and Renennistrom of the Eurodance band Aqua.
She later founded a jewelry line, but the paper attracted her more and more as “materials that you don't have to be valuable,” she said.
Paper cutting, or poem giography, is based on two Danish traditions. First, paper cuttings and mysterious letters traded by Danes in the 17th and 19th centuries. This letter inspired paper cuttings created by fairy tale writer Hans Christian Andersen, and helped perpetuate the popularity of Easter papercut cards today.
The second cutout silhouette, an affordable portrait in the 18th century, influenced the style of 2D paper cut ornaments that Scott Hansen began creating in 2014 (flowers appeared soon after that, and can be hung from the window.
At the time, Marie Roberg was curator of the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Humurbek, Denmark, and adopted a retrospective exhibition by Kusamayayoi. She ordered one of the mermaids cut into Scott Hansen's paper as a gift to a Japanese artist.
Scott Hansen's work was “very poetic” back then and now, said Roberg, who became director of the Copenhagen Centre for Contemporary Art. “But there's darkness to it, and it speaks to the Kusama universe and our Scandinavian fairy tale tradition. It's also in this zone between art and craft. It's connected to Easter, Christmas and craft. But people like Marianne can add layers and play it as art.”
When Scott Hansen devoted himself to the art of paper ten years ago, she switched from 2D work to creating large 3D pieces in the form of flowers. “She runs away from flatness,” Roberg said.
She occasionally makes paper cuttings of fairy tale characters and insects, such as butterflies and house-free, from black or white cardstock and gift wrap paper (starting at $600). However, most of her work is done in kraft paper, tissue paper and wrapping paper.
Her 3-D embrace called for her to move from simple hathaming to what she called “a kind of pristine 'Sortium origami'. She uses her legs.
Scott Hansen cut the air out with his fingers. When I start fantasizing about things that shouldn't be cut, that's when I know I'm tired. ”
In terms of colour, for example, the ombré effect of Ranunculus Rose Hybrid is achieved by stacking paper petals cut in 20-30 different shades.
She doesn't want to trace how much time she spent planning or creating. Instead, she cultivates a set of minds that “a roll of paper is about to take over — and anything could happen.”
Wild flowers
Scott Hansen's inspiration ranges from garden variability flowers to Jurassic flowering plants, corpse flowers, and what is called the “big character” of carnivorous animals.
Her typical large-format work – a single flower head can be 150 cm (5 feet) in diameter, but is also shaped by the fantastic scenario between the storyline of “Sunbrina,” the storyline of “Sanbrina,” the “Little Shop of Terror” born from flowers. “People are coming closer to my flowers and they think they're not tamed,” she added. “The flowers may seem to be able to eat you, but for me it's peaceful.”
Still, she likes to make the work “feel small,” she said. “I love the humble effect of facing something bigger than I am. I like being Sunbrina in this business.”
Scott Hansen's work includes flower installations and masks, a portrait of Giuseppe Al-Symbod's fruit and vegetable, as well as designs that also remind you of Italian glass-style Milefiori.
In one example, the 100cm tall mask had a face consisting of brown paper rolled boards with yellow, orange and red twisted, and a lower fringe ($5,500) of more paper strips. “These masks really help you look back at you,” she said.
Stylist Alana Hadid, who returned to her Los Angeles home with Scott Hansen's mask, said in a recent phone interview: I'll probably cry every time I'm there. ”
Scott Hansen's work can be made available through reservations in Copenhagen and through spaceless galleries that have pop-up installations in other galleries, hotels and department stores, primarily in Paris and New York. They are also ordered from fashion houses such as Fendi, Dior and Hermes, as well as Danish institutions such as porcelain manufacturers Royal Copenhagen, Avant-garde restaurants and Alchemists.
As for the future, Scott Hansen said he plans to continue exploring “the fields in which Flora meets fauna” and is investigating the role of color. For example, until recently, my client wanted a big black rose.
“It looks like a spider on a wall,” the paper artist said. “It's really black. But in pastels it would have looked like it came from another world.”
