The Dark Side - Papercut

The Dark Side
Papercut by Mathias Malling Mortensen, Stinne Bo, Peter Callesen and Amanda Betz

Discover paper art by the four contemporary artists: Mathias Malling Mortensen (b. 1980), Stinne Bo (b. 1983), Peter Callesen (b. 1967) and Amanda Betz (b. 1978), who unfold the theme of The Dark Side through the papercut technique. The theme has been selected by Vendsyssel Museum of Art and Kastrupgårdsamlingen to challenge the artists in their own fields and to illustrate the diversity of contemporary art, including what is often defined as papercuts.

The theme refers to both the seriousness of life, the dark side of the mind, and to man's relationship with nature, as well as to the reverse side of a physical object. Paper and the theme are fundamental contrasts since paper is light, transparent, and fragile. And yet, a different type of material can perhaps underline and expose the theme more convincingly. The four artists have indeed approached their task very differently by using their hands, knives, scissors, and laser cutters to process the paper from a two-dimensional surface into a three-dimensional artwork with multiple expressions.

Paper is a material that most people are highly familiar with. It relates to the many opportunities facilitated through the art of printing, the poetic nature of writing letters, the existence of newspapers, and the art of drawing itself.

Mathias Malling Mortensen focuses on the contrasts of paper by using shapes, colors, light and shadow, while Stinne Bo makes her three-dimensional paper works of plant and flower patterns explore the relationship between man and nature. In Peter Callesen’s case, figures rise from the clean, white A4 sheet in motifs that deal with the abyss and have a tragicomic twist, whereas cotton plants and climate change in Pakistan have become the setting for Amanda Betz's detailed papercuts.

In the encounter with the paper works at the exhibition, several of our senses are appealed to, and you get the chance to touch cotton paper, lie down in a light-filled paper tent, move around spatial paper formations, examine the many patterns of the works, layers and shapes and so much more.

The exhibition has been created in close collaboration between the artists, Kastrupgårdsamlingen and Vendsyssel Museum of Art.

The exhibition and catalogue have been supported by: Augustinus Fonden, Beckett-Fonden, Grosserer L. F. Foghts Fond, Knud Højgaards Fond, Spar Nord Fonden and Aage og Johanne Louis-Hansens Fond.