Japanese artist Nahoko Kojima’s amazing skills with hand-cut paper sculptures continue to impress us! Her Cloud Leopard was quite a sensation and, more recently, she designed this large, life-sized swimming polar bear entitled Byaku. Originally suspended from the ceiling of London’s Jerwood Space, the massive bear was installed over a thick base of white wood and it hovered delicately overhead in unexpected weightlessness.
The large bear took 7 months to create and was cut from just one single sheet of 10×10-foot white Washi paper. The more than 8-foot-long animal’s body is composed of ornate shapes and patterns which, when illuminated by light from above, cast an array of changing shadows across the floor.
The artist said, “I did lots of sketches and research about how [polar bears] live and behave ..thought very carefully about the paper to use for the piece and chose a white Washi which has low kouzo. This makes the paper go yellow after being in the sun for a long time. This was perfect because the Polar Bear’s coat also goes through a similar change.”
Byaku will continue on national tour in the UK through November 9, 2013.
