hurrengoa
simon schubert·paper-work    How did you come up with the idea of doing these paper works?
The first folded paper work I did was a portrait of Samuel Beckett. I was trying to find a way of portraying Beckett on different levels. On the one hand the folds directly resemble the wrinkles in the face of Samuel Beckett and on the other hand the aspect of ìfading into whiteî, especially found in Beckett’s later works, is what I wanted to find an equivalent for it in art. I never use pencils or colours in my paper works, translating Beckett’s “fading into white” into my work.

Why paper? Do you use special paper? What is the “magic” of this material?
Paper is a great material, as it is very pure and has hundreds of years of art historical background. Interestingly, for me especially, is the fact that it is also a writer’s material.

What technique do you use?
The paper works are made completely by folding, a technique I invented, which took me years to improve. The papers are entirely folded and uncoloured.

Even though we have seen a couple of portraits(really amazing ones), you prefer to represent interior landscapes...stairs, doors,... Any reason for that?
I am interested in the situation between space, the dimensionalities and architecture. Space can be understood as folded material and my works are between two and three dimensionality as architecture appears through the complex folding of the paper surface giving the works depth.

The images are pretty hypnotic... when you start watching you think it’s just folded paper but suddenly your eyes start reading the image...and we notice there are different planes... profundity... how do you create this 3D impression?
The three dimensionality is a result of the special technique I use. I create lines, angles and circles, which are raised several millimetres. Those reliefs change in the interplay of shadow and light and move between two and three dimensionality.

We are intrigued by your work... looking at the images of your paper work and trying to imagine how you obtain such a suggestive and mellow lighting?... How do you light it, or scan it to obtain the final result... barely present and...enough not to be invisible...
The lighting is very important for the presentation of the paperworks, to create the depth needed. The perfect light is diagonal from the side and above, but direct light from the front makes the image disappear.

The representation of interior landscapes, sometimes mixed with kind of oneiric geometric forms, ... Do they have any meaning?
The geometric forms, as well as the mirror reflections, create complex pictures, where architecture and the two and three dimensionalities interlock and everything seems to be folded again and again.