FK chats to Lisa Loxley, from The Paper Convention Collective about their upcoming event
Suspense is building for the upcoming A4 Paper Festival! so what can we expect to discover?
Paper is enjoying some-sort of a renaissance, reminding us that all you really need is a simple piece of paper and a little creativity. The highly anticipated A4 Paper Festival is an event unique to Sydney, Australia and solely dedicated to the uses of print and paper. It will offer audiences insight in contemporary developments with paper, by means of groundbreaking exhibitions, lectures and workshops.
Presented by The Paper Convention, a collective dedicated to the documentation of paper expressionism, the festival will showcase the most extraordinary creations crafted from paper; from small objects & figures, large-scale installations, handcrafted creations, self-published zines, three-dimensional graphic sculptures made by the designers/artists from different disciplines including design, print, graphic design, illustration, fashion, sculpture and animation.
Can you tell us about the 12 paper artists involved in the festival.
A4 will feature the works of more than 12 Australian and International paper-artists consisting of a mix of big names and debut work ready to bust onto the scene. This includes Sydney-based paper-artist Benja Harney, more recently known for creating the extraordinary Kylie Minogue pop-up ‘Goddess Edition’ book, Trial&Error will be creating an large-scale installation in conjunction with Fairfax consisting of newspaper headlines, UK Paper-Artist and designer Hattie Newman has created a colourful ‘Island’ paper sculpture, whilst up-and-comer, University of Technology student Kaitland Burrows will create a large-scale installation from folding over 8,500 A4 sheets of paper. The highlight of the festival will be all the way from Japan, well-renowned Professor and Paper-Artist Yoshinobu Miyamoto, who will create a 2metre size paper sphere made from 60 units of cardboard, as well as run workshops and a lecture in paper in the built environment – not to be missed! There are paper animations by Benjamin Ducroz and Columbian paper-artist Juan Manuel Pedraza. Paper-cutouts by Australian Paper-Artist Emma Van Leest, large-scale paper earings by Hong-Kong based Anna Gleeson, Bianca Chang will entice us with her detailed paper block cuts, Matthew Roland with his modern take on the average paper plane and Seattle based Paper-Artist/Designer/Ilustrator Jesse Brown will highlight the many uses of illustration, geometric cut-outs, sculpture and the 3d paper form. There are some surprises in store from 8 students from the Enmore Design Centre too!
What has the response been like since starting to put the word out about the Paper Convention?
We’ve had a phenomenal response since launching the collective – people are responding to creating and making from a simple sheet of paper, their ‘inner’ creative comes out and from what we see, from designers to people with ‘little’ creative skill, from small children to adults everybody seems to respond really well to this tactile medium.
Who is behind this Paper Festival, and what are their roles?
We are passionate designers, artists, creators and come together out of our love of paper. It includes: Lisa Loxley (founder, director and curator) who is a passionate advocate of paper-art design and see this as the pulse of popular culture and society (www.loxsavvy.com). Matthew Roland Bannister (assistant designer) who studies and tutors design at the University of Technology, Sydney, amongst spending the majority of his time drawing (www.matthewroland.com), Kitiya Palaskas (event assistant/production) is an artist and craft enthusiast, who has taught craft to Etsy Enthusiasts in New York City, creates mastermine zines and is the Craft Online Producer at Better Homes and Gardens, and has an up-and-coming Papercraft workshop as part of the Sydney Design 2011 – see her colourful, fun-filled blog www.kitiyapalaskas.com. TrialandError (designers), an emerging Melbourne based design studio and creative paper artists born from a love of collaboration, DIY Culture and found objects www.trialanderror.com.au and Kylie McIntyre [assistant designer] was born an artsy fartsy creative type and couldn’t imagine herself doing anything other than being creative and is open to opportunites and experiences www.peachyflamingo.com.au.
Lastly, what details do people need to know about the upcoming A4 Paper Festival?
Our opening night is from 6pm on the 31st May 2011 at the Paper Mill, and you can rsvp here www.facebook.com/Paper-Convention-Collective and we have significant workshops, talks, lectures and general paper making via our programme below (click on image to take you to A4 paper program). Check out our website for further details, venues and times.
Image credits above: Miyamoto Yoshinobu, Jesse Brown, Benja Harney, Juan Manuel Pedraza, Emma Van Leest.