This month sees the new work by internationally renowned artist and papercutting extraordinaire Rob Ryan on show at The Air Gallery on Dover Street in an exhibition entitled The Stars Shine All Day Too. Famed for his beautifully intricate and
This month sees the new work by internationally renowned artist and papercutting extraordinaire Rob Ryan on show at The Air Gallery on Dover Street in an exhibition entitled The Stars Shine All Day Too. Famed for his beautifully intricate and enchanting hand-crafted papercuts, with painstaking precision Ryan decoratively carves up the most delicate of fine papers into captivating stories and fairytales inviting the viewer to enter his world of romance. His highly elaborate papercuts have appeared in collaborations with Liberty’s of London, Paul Smith, Vogue, Tatty Devine and this month Lulu Guinness on an exclusive limited edition fan bag which took over 40 hours to hand-embroider. On the eve of his The Stars Shine All Day Too exhibition launch we spoke to the hugely influential artist about tree houses, stars and dreaming.
Where did your passion for papercutting begin?
Before I started papercutting I worked mainly in screenprinting – laying down flat areas of colour – one over the other, so it wasn't too big a step for me to move onto working on one plane. More recently the actual cutting out has got finer and finer, but I guess you can only go so fine without going mad, which I feel almost at the edge of…!
Love is a central theme to your pieces in The Stars Shine All Day Too – what role does it play in your work?
I never think of my work being about love, I see it more as being about people and relationships and daydreaming. I don't sit down and think, “I'm going to write or draw a 'love' picture” – it just seems to end up that way a lot of the time. God knows why.
There is a narrative running through many of your pieces in this exhibition – what do you base them on?
A lot of these pictures are night scenes, I guess living in a city the night sky is fairly nonexistent star wise, so to make up for it I cut them out from pieces of paper. I've always seen the night sky as this big black curtain and the stars are just holes in it.
Could you describe the process of making one of these pieces?
You get a piece of paper, draw on it then cut out shapes with a scalpel – it takes forever!
You have been involved in some great collaborations working in a variety of mediums – what would your dream collaboration be?
I'd really like to make a brilliant tree house although I don't know who with. But I'd get Tim Walker to photograph it 'cos he's dead good.
You have inspired countless designers and illustrators – what’s the secret to your success and what advice would you give budding young artists?
Have lots of fun. Make your art part of your entire life and never stop thinking, drawing and dreaming.
Do you have any exciting new projects in the pipeline?
I have just opened this show with TAG Fine Arts which will run until November 20th at the Air Gallery and I'm also finishing work for another show in Stafford at The Shire Hall Gallery, which opens later this month. After that I am working on my own children’s storybook A Sky Full Of Kindness, which is to be published in September 2011.
Text by Lucia Davies
TAG Fine Arts presents: Rob Ryan ‘The Stars Shine All Day Too’ until 20th November at The Air Gallery, 32 Dover Street.
