The Vulnerability of Silhouettes

One thing I like about silhouette profile portraits is that it literally shows a side of yourself that you don't see. In this way, it leaves us a bit vulnerable. It takes us years to get used to the way we look, all the while we are aging and changing and then we look at our profile and feel estranged from ourselves. Do I really look that much like Marge Simpson? Oh boy. Making a profile portrait is an exercise in self acceptance and accepting the fact that we need other people to help us see the full human being that we are.

When you look at all the profiles in the class you see how diverse the human race is, especially in a cosmopolitan city like Vancouver. The positive and negative space in each portrait reveals the unique way each person takes up space in the world. At Christmas I made silhouettes of my son and my partner and I. "Whose nose does your son have?" someone asked. "I hope it's not mine!" I answered. The silhouette is the form, your personality, your intelligence, and your soul is the content. All our lives we struggle with the push-pull relationships with the form and content of our selves. Coming to terms with the form our body takes is a lifelong journey. Learning to see the invisible beauty, or people's "content" is one of the most important life-skills.

In order to make an interesting silhouette you can jazz it up with some of your wardrobe or costume pieces. Think about how the hat and the collar on your jacket or shirt with affect your profile from the side. Please bring these wardrobe pieces to the next class I teach. I'll be taking a photo of each of you from the side which I will print and enlarge to 11 by 17 inches. You will draw a line around your profile and cut on the line. This is your stencil. You will trace that positive shape onto black paper with a light-colored pencil crayon. Cut out the silhouette using a sharp scissors and/or exacto knife.

I am also going to give you a plant that is native to BC. You'll pick a plant name from a hat and then do in depth research on that plant. You'll be drawing this plant in different styles, so find some good images for reference.

Silhouettes and Paper Cutting Art research Links

Silhouette history book. Silhouette: The Art of the Shadow by Emma Rutherford. Click on the photos to enlarge the images in this online book review.
Key Words: Physiognomy: Physiognomy (from the Gk. "physis" meaning 'nature' and "gnomon" meaning 'judge' or 'interpreter') is the assessment of a person's character or personality from their outer appearance, especially the face. --Wikipedia

Squid Head by Courts Carter: At the end of the post Carter also gives more silhouette links.
Note: We are going to be taking photos of you from the side so you can create your own silhouette. Think about what you are going to wear. You have the option of wearing a hat. Also, think about the collar on the shirt or coat you'll be wearing.

Jenny Lee Fowler leaf silhouettes

Jenny Lee Fowler etsy shop: An artist who does traditional silhouette portraits as well as novel paper cuts. Some silhouette artists do commissions from photographs.

   Country Living Magazine Slideshow: This shows a collection of ways silhouettes can be incorporated into our environment.
Surreal Silhouettes by Christian van  Minnen
Matisse Cut outs: A Thousand and One Nights:
More Matisse

Matisse, Polynesia, the Sea
Matisse, Amphitrite
Kara Walker is a contemporary artist who uses silhouette in installations to explore racial themes including stereotyping and racist caricatures.
Gale Everett's Botanical Silhouettes
This is what we are going to be working on--taking the concept of silhouettes and applying them to native plants from BC.
Heather Moore's Leaves

Other uses for silhouettes include shadow puppets. There is a strong tradition in Bali of intricate shadow puppetry.

You can have fun by creating your silhouette in a large scale format which is easier to cut and then shrinking it down by scanning it and playing with it in Photoshop or using a photocopier.

Paper Cut Art
Elsa Mora's etsy shop: This whimsical artist does fine paper cutting work, handmade books, dolls and prints from her paper cuts. Some of her work is inspired by fairy tales.

Paper cutting can lie flat in a graphic, two dimensional representation or it can actually become very detailed and sculptural moving beyond the silhouette and becoming 3 Dimensional. Even the most detailed images you see here were made cut by cut by hand with an exacto knife. Designers and artists who want to do multiples can use laser cutting.

Red Paper Cut Dress: "Two visitors take a close look at a "paper-cut dress" at the Chinese Paper-cutting Art Exposition in Wenzhou City, east China's Zhejiang Province, September 14, 2004." 

 

Paper Cut Exhibit at the Museum of Art and Design

Rob Ryan Dress
Rob Ryan Paper cuts 2010 
If you like Rob Ryan's work, check out his excellent blog. He writes very eloquently about his work and there are some videos, including a time lapse video of his team creating one of the big works.
Rob Ryan Papercut Animation ad:

Paper cut artist Kako Oeda

Detail Kako Oeda

Kako Oeda's website

Cal Lane wheelbarrows and shovels.

Hastings Moth Project: An incredible project placing larger than life moth stencils on city buildings using a power-washing technique with stencils.

A highly recommended video on an exhibition called Lace in Translation:
Lace In Translation from Canary Promotion + Design on Vimeo.