PAPER-CUTS SERIES 2004

Traditional Chinese Paper-cuts reflect every day life in rural China. In most Chinese villages, paper-cuts are a unique art form that has been passed down from one generation to the next. In many poor villages, the primary purpose of making paper-cuts is to create images that express the basic hopes and desires of the rural artist such as fertility (especially male children) and family prosperity. The symbolic images that appear in the paper-cuts vary from basic foods such as wheat and fruit to the representations of folk heroes and Daoist icons.

Traditional Chinese paper-cuts has influenced in my current work, but the subject I have chosen moves beyond the simple notion of fertility (male children) and focuses on sexual desires and identity as well as socially accepted gender roles. The paper-cut images are presented in pairs that mirror the Daoist notion of Ying and Yang, and imply the balance between the human inner appetence and outer appearance, as well as male and female. I attempt to present modern gender roles and notions of sexual identity in a more traditional and symbolic way. I believe I have accomplished this effect with the incorporation of sculptured human faces on green apples in mixed media and 3D approach.