'to honor the little plants' artist jasmin sian cuts intricate, overgrown worlds from deli bags

The creative process starts outdoors among weeds and squirrels, with an unglamorous posture that mirrors the behavior of small animals. Drawings and cut-paper works focus on tender attention to small lives and plant growth that many people overlook. At the Whitney, found deli bags become surfaces for gouache, lacquer ink, graphite, and cutouts, while lace-like borders are hand-cut with an X-Acto knife. The works are intimate in scale, including small cut-paper fields that function as memorials or protective dwellings. Found paper is treated as a medium for texture, wrinkles, and folds, which guide composition through touch and help map direction, edges, and spacing.

"“When people see me, I'm always crawling around the ground,” she tells us. It's far from the romantic image of plein air painting, and closer in spirit to the tiny animals nosing through the flowers. That image says a lot about the tender spirit of her work. Her drawings and cut-paper pieces come from close attention to small lives and bits of plant growth that many people pass by.”"

"“At the Whitney, her materials carry that same ground-level logic. Found deli bags become surfaces for gouache, lacquer ink, graphite, and cutouts, with those animals and plants framed by lace-like borders cut by hand with an X-Acto knife.”"

"“One work - dovecote: a tree-pee in Bugoy's favorite spot with Mrs. Manok in mom's garden, Philippines - measures just 3 ⁵∕₈ by 5 3/4 inches, and shows a small field of finely cut scrap paper dense with attention. Living beings are rendered within these cut motifs that act as memorials in some cases and protective dwellings in others.”"

"“This paper, which would otherwise be waste, gives Sian a structure to think through. She likes its texture, its wrinkles, the way folds can become a guide, and how easily it cuts. The creases help her map the composition, almost like a hand-held terrain where direction, edge, and spacing can be found through touch.”"

Read at designboom | architecture & design magazine