Paper artwork

This project started as homework set for GCSE Art. The theme was “Together”. I didn’t feel like making something that would take a lot of time, so instead I chose to cut out these limb-shapes and stick them together on a grid, so that they interlock.

Although I did not realise this at the time, on reflection I think it is possible this design was inspired by the staircase of hands from Yume Nikki. Regardless, when I made this, I certainly didn’t intend to continue it beyond this artwork. However, afterwards I liked it so much that I chose to continue, using the scrap pieces that couldn’t fit in the above piece to make two smaller pieces.

One of the features that made this idea so ripe for iteration was that the first design already established a set formula, with how the shapes look and the way that they interact.

I made a second piece, much in the same way as the first, to explore the idea further.

This piece also has a Hanukkah theme. There is a Hanukkiah rested on top of an arm, and the hand in the top right is holding a dreidel. My initial goal was for there to be a ring of hands who are all playing dreidel together, maybe with gelt distributed between them. I also wanted the letters to spell out something in Hebrew to further tie the piece together. Although I didn't do that in this piece, I still think the idea of the hands playing a game together is a good one, although I don’t think dreidel is a good fit. If I were to do this today, I would have the hands playing a game of cards or playing a board game.

With the spare shapes, I created another extra artwork.

That is all the papercut artwork I made for GCSE Art, however, recently I have created another papercut piece to include in this series. This time I used decorative paper instead of plain coloured paper.

I had enough spare shapes for a smaller additional A4 piece.

One shape that you may notice is absent from this third piece that is present in the other two, is a hand pushing against the side of its arm. I think this is because this final piece was based on the new standards set through the process of making the game, as that interaction was never implemented into the game.