Karen Bit Vejle | |
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 Karen Bit Vejle at work with her art of paper and air. Marjana Malkamäki. |
Karen Bit Vejle (born June 5, 1958 in Ejby, Denmark) is a Danish papercut artist. She lived in Trondheim, Norway from 1984 to 2014, and currently lives in Denmark.
Vejle's primary art form is papercutting, the art of creating images made of paper by cutting patterns and pictures. She carries on a tradition from, among others, the Danish fairy-tale writer H.C. Andersen, and a technique that was important in the 1700s for silhouette portraiture. Papercut art is made from large sheets of paper and cut only with scissors. The work of creating this type of art is time-intensive and requires great concentration; a wrong cut cannot be undone.
An important figure in Vejle's artwork is "Ballerina Bulldog," an apparently delicate, but strong, ballerina. The aim of the Ballerina Bulldog concept is to provoke reflection on one's own inner strength, and increase awareness of the responsibility one has for one's own life choices. [1] [2] The concept is based on Søren Kierkegaard's philosophy:
The Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard has said that when we walk the path of life, we come to a point where it splits in two. We have to choose, and then we move on. And when we have gone a little way, the road splits again and we can make a new and perhaps wiser choice. That is the wonderful thing.
She also creates template paintings, cutting images from one piece of paper and transferring them by painting on a second sheet (stenciling).
Vejle has had installations and shows in Scandinavia, Europe, Asia and the United States. The well-known London gallery Adrian Sassoon is the main seller of her art. [4] The American Swedish Institute in Minneapolis exhibited 54 of her paper creations in a 2016 show called Papercut! The Incredible Psaligraphy of Karen Bit Vejle. [5]
In 2010 she began an artistic collaboration, "Paper dialogues," with the Chinese papercut artist Xiaoguan Qiao. [6] Both Vejle and Qiao created work depicted dragons; as Qiao put it, the "dragon’s meaning as a symbol differs depending on the culture that views it." [6] The collaboration resulted in an exhibit that was shown in many countries around the world.
Vejle is the subject of a documentary by Norwegian filmmaker Gry Molvær Hivju, "Bit Ballerina Bulldog", that was nominated for Best Documentary of the Year during at the 2015 Bergen International Film Festival (BIFF), and nominated for Best Movie Music for the Norwegian Broadcast Industry's Golden Screen award.
Søren Aabye Kierkegaard was a Danish theologian, philosopher, poet, social critic, and religious author who is widely considered to be the first Christian existentialist philosopher. He wrote critical texts on organized religion, Christianity, morality, ethics, psychology, and the philosophy of religion, displaying a fondness for metaphor, irony, and parables. Much of his philosophical work deals with the issues of how one lives as a "single individual", giving priority to concrete human reality over abstract thinking and highlighting the importance of personal choice and commitment.
Bergen, historically Bjørgvin, is a city and municipality in Vestland county on the west coast of Norway. As of 2022, its population was roughly 289,330. Bergen is the second-largest city in Norway after the national capital Oslo. The municipality covers 465 square kilometres (180 sq mi) and is located on the peninsula of Bergenshalvøyen. The city centre and northern neighbourhoods are on Byfjorden, 'the city fjord'. The city is surrounded by mountains, causing Bergen to be called the "city of seven mountains". Many of the extra-municipal suburbs are on islands. Bergen is the administrative centre of Vestland county. The city consists of eight boroughs: Arna, Bergenhus, Fana, Fyllingsdalen, Laksevåg, Ytrebygda, Årstad, and Åsane.
The art of paper cutting in China may date back to the 2nd century CE, when paper was invented by Cai Lun, a court official of the Eastern Han dynasty.
Georg Morris Cohen Brandes was a Danish critic and scholar who greatly influenced Scandinavian and European literature from the 1870s through the turn of the 20th century. He is seen as the theorist behind the "Modern Breakthrough" of Scandinavian culture. At the age of 30, Brandes formulated the principles of a new realism and naturalism, condemning hyper-aesthetic writing and also fantasy in literature. His literary goals were shared by some other authors, among them the Norwegian "realist" playwright Henrik Ibsen.
The American Swedish Institute (ASI) is a museum and cultural center in the Phillips West neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. The organization is dedicated to the preservation and study of the historic role Sweden and Swedish Americans have played in US culture and history. The museum complex includes the Swan Turnblad Mansion, completed in 1908, and the adjoining Nelson Cultural Center, completed in 2012.
The Danish Golden Age covers a period of exceptional creative production in Denmark, especially during the first half of the 19th century. Although Copenhagen had suffered from fires, bombardment and national bankruptcy, the arts took on a new period of creativity catalysed by Romanticism from Germany. The period is probably most commonly associated with the Golden Age of Danish Painting from 1800 to around 1850 which encompasses the work of Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg and his students, including Wilhelm Bendz, Christen Købke, Martinus Rørbye, Constantin Hansen and Wilhelm Marstrand, as well as the sculpture of Bertel Thorvaldsen.
Papercutting or paper cutting is the art of paper designs. Art has evolved all over the world to adapt to different cultural styles. One traditional distinction most styles share is that the designs are cut from a single sheet of paper as opposed to multiple adjoining sheets as in collage.
Hallgrim Hansegård is a Norwegian choreographer and dancer whose background is rooted in his traditional halling dance training and contemporary dance. He is also known for leading a trio of dancers who danced alongside Alexander Rybak onstage at The Eurovision Song Contest 2009 which his country won.
Arne Mathias Ranslet was a Danish sculptor and ceramist.
Jewish paper cutting is a traditional form of Jewish folk art made by cutting figures and sentences in paper or parchment. It is connected with various customs and ceremonies, and associated with holidays and family life. Paper cuts often decorated ketubbot, Mizrahs, and ornaments for festive occasions. Paper cutting was practiced by Jewish communities in both Eastern Europe and North Africa and the Middle East for centuries and has seen a revival in modern times in Israel and elsewhere.
Shanghai-style papercutting is a variety of papercutting practiced in south China, and in particular in Shanghai.
Knud Nellemose was a Danish sculptor who is remembered for his figures of sportsmen and his statues of famous Danes.
Bård Breivik was a Norwegian sculptor and art instructor.
Søren Kierkegaard was a Danish philosopher whose influence and reception varied widely and may be roughly divided into various chronological periods. Reactions were anything but uniform, and proponents of various ideologies attempted to appropriate his work quite early.
Nahoko Kojima is a contemporary Japanese paper cut artist. She started Kirie under private tutelage at the age of five and continued throughout her formative years. In 1999 she moved to Tokyo and in 2004 she graduated from a degree in design at Kuwasawa Institute. An avid follower of fashion and trends, she found much of her inspiration in the city. She briefly pursued a career in graphic design in Tokyo before moving to London in 2005 to learn more of the Western culture of the arts. Her first solo Paper Cut show in London exhibited the five senses collection at the Epicurean Lounge in 2007.
Helle-Vibeke Erichsen was a Danish artist who created caricatures of people she met, initially in the form of etchings and woodcuts. From 1984, she specialized in painting.
Elinborg Lützen was a Faroese graphic designer.
Gry Molvær Hivju is a communicator, TV-presenter, director and producer of documentaries, scriptwriter, news journalist, as well as an accomplished artist.
Wilhelm Wanscer was a Danish paper merchant and art collector, remembered above all for his associations with the philosopher Søren Kirkegård and some of the leading Danish Golden Age artists. He was the father of surgeon Oscar Wanscher and industrialist Axel Wanscher, grandfather of art historian Vilhelm Wanscher and great-grandfather of the designer Ole Wanscher.
Ballerina Bulldog papercut artist Bit Vejles story of the Ballerina Bulldog is based on Kierkegaard's philosophy. The exhibit shows Ballerina Bulldog, who, with help of her power tools, takes responsibility for her dance through life. (Papirkunstner Bit Vejles fortælling om Ballerina Bulldog er baseret på Søren Kierkegaards filosofi. Udstillingen viser Ballerina Bulldog, som, med hjælp af sine power tools, tager ansvar for sin linedans gennem livet.)
QX: It was great to work with Bit as a cross-cultural dialogue. We selected the same theme—the dragon (in Chinese, it is "Long")—to depict. The dragon's meaning as a symbol differs depending on the culture that views it.