Keep it simple to explore complexity
On creative restrictions and cutting paper with care
Restricted tools. Resticted materials. Use just the papers you have at hand. Use recycled materials. Use just a few colours and limited shapes: perhaps just lines and circles. Tear the paper instead of cutting. Cut, but keep and use the offcuts. Use principles of “notan”- harmony of light and dark, interplay of positive and negative spaces.
Keeping it simple to explore complexity: I use this approach frequently, and in the last few years it has become my favourite way to deploy art for both personal and research reflections. A few years ago, I created a series of mini-books to illustrate the process of engaging with one’s feeligs, while also navigating uneasy encounter between western narratives of therapy and self help, and different cultures of emotions and emotional vocabulaties.
Since then, I returned to creative restrictions time and again. Limited shapes. Limited colours. Reflection through repetition. My #100dayproject2024 consisted of daily collages of the “insides” of one’s mind, repeated through the same bust siluette.
Last year, I experimented with geli printing, using just a few hand-cut paper stencils, same shapes, same figures, over and over.
In all of these, the process of cutting and assembling the papers was far more important than the outcome. In all of these, resctrictions inspired reflections, and shapes helped visualise that which was much hard to put together in words.
I call this cutting papers with care.
Care becomes part of the process. Care for one’s mind, overwhelmed with possiblities, doubts, ideas, feelings, and visions. Care for one’s workspace, where, in the lack of a studio - or, when collaging on the go - having less means being able to create more. And care for one’s planet. I often work with recycled papers, keep and use all I can, to resist disposability and discard.
This week, as I embark on #100dayproject2026, I am back to cutting papers with care. My pieces this week are dedicated to environmental care in digital times, and care for methodological complexities. More soon - look out for weekly posts on the progress of my project.
