Skip to main content

Paper Art - IAPMA COngress 2018 ...

'Paper art is a modern art bred by traditions and crafts related to paper and, as the newest area in contemporary art, it blends traditions and innovations, experiments and high achievements. It challenges world authors to create a new language of expression and new technologies that enrich contemporary art.'

Sofia Paper Art Fest




Several years ago during one of my many visits to Korea I was asked if I was a member of IAPMA.I had no idea what they were talking about and as such, I almost brushed it aside until one day I decided to do some research to find  out more about this paper association.  IAPMA stands for the International Association of Hand Paper Makers and Paper Artists and when checking out the website  I was intrigued by the  work that was done  by it's members.
In a nutshell this association is an International Community of paper artists who share a common love of making and working with paper.

Two years ago now, not long after joining IAPMA, I was fortunate enough to join my first  Paper Tour in France where we spent 10 days travelling around the French countryside visiting old Paper mills and seeing demonstrations of how paper use to be made using traditional Western methods, exploring UNESCO World Heritage sites and  visiting several French Artists' studios.  It was an amazing experience and one that allowed me to gain  a wealth of knowledge about paper and also just as importantly, where new friendships of like minded  artists were formed. 

This year was the biannual IAPMA Congress - 'Paper : Conscience and Consciousness' and it was to be held in Sofia, Bulgaria so with an already planned visit to Europe, I was  able to attend.   I signed up as a participant and went along ready to be immersed in more paper culture. The exhibitions I attended were way beyond my expectations in terms of scale, diversity and standards. Many of the Congress participants had their creative work on display and  I must admit that I was blown away by what I saw. To be immersed in a community of artists at this level was extremely humbling.


'Paper Obligato' (Collage of handmade banana paper, screen printed and stitched) 2017 - Heather Mathews, AUSTRALIA

'Dinner is served' (used tea bags), 2017 - Renate Schweizer, GERMANY



'Sunyata' (Platinum Palladium Print on Obara Washi Paper) 2017 - Reji Aoyama, JAPAN

The Girl of Healing Messages' (xerox transfer, paper thread crochetted and integrated to a joomchi treatment on washi), 2017 - Carolina Larrea, CHILE

'Earth Series III' (paper pulp, banana fibre), 2016 - Eliana Anghinah, BRAZIL

The Congress enabled me to reignite  friendships with  people I'd met on the Paper Tour in France and during meal breaks and discussion sessions I also made many new friends.  Everyone was so welcoming and I received numerous  invites to visit their homes and studios, not only in Europe but all over the world. I took some of them up on their offers during our trip around Europe and those time  turned out to be very special as it cemented our friendships even further and gave me a lot of inspiration for the future on my creative journey.

I've come back to Australia with my head  spinning with ideas of what I'd like to do as far as experimenting with paper in different ways and diversifying my style of work with the traditional Hanji paper I so enjoy. 
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Lotus symbol in Korean culture .....

In traditional Korean Hanji art you can see many different designs of plants, animals, letters and insects. I'm sure you've wondered what they all symbolise as they are repeated so often and in many different ways.  In this post I just want to take a brief look at the lotus plant and what it symbolises for the Korean people. I've used this design on a few articles but I never really knew the full meaning of what it represented until I started doing some research for my book.  Even though many of us aren't Korean we can still use these designs and in so doing, translate a deeper meaning to our articles. Here are a just a few of my favourites from the easiest to the more difficult to cut out.                         The lotus flower symbolises creation, birth, liveability and reproduction and therefore it's one of the most  important symbols in both Korean culture a...
3 comments
Read more

The Buddhist symbol, Hanji & Korean culture ....

When selecting designs for my Hanji pieces I tend to make stylistic choices as to what will look best on each piece but the Korean designs all have very deep symbolic meanings.  None more than the Buddhist swastika (manja) design. ‘Manja’ (만, Man is “卍” and 만자, Manja literally means “letter Man”) is also called Srivatsalksana in Sanskrit.  It is one of the thirty-two (32) marks of excellence of the Buddha and is said to exist on his hands, feet, hair and waist.                         For those of us in the West this is often confused with the German Nazi swastika symbol but in fact it's been  around for about three thousand years.  The swastika is an equilateral cross with arms bent at right angles and all in the same direction, usually to the right, or clockwise. It's a symbol of prosperity and good fortune and it originally represented the revolving sun, fire, or life. The word swastik...
Post a Comment
Read more

Online Hanji paper store, in English .....

I'm really pleased to be able to share with you this website where you can order a variety of Hanji papers from Korea and it's all in English !!!  The store is based in Daejon, Korea.   HAMINBRIDGE ( Thehanji ) was established by Moonyang Park in 1983. It's a family owned 2nd generation  business and they have a factory in Junju.  They also have a factory in China where some of the paper is made. The website is at www. thehanji.com and it provides a selection of specialty Hanji paper (Korean paper) and products.   I ordered some papers from them recently  to see what it was like and they were extremely efficient in dealing with  the order and it was here in the UAE within 5 days so I was really impressed. The prices were good and they even have some on special, the paper is beautiful and the ease of ordering was amazing.   They do sell rolls of paper, traditional papers and lanterns but overall I did think the range...
6 comments
Read more