Paper Cutting Dialogues

This afternoon we popped into town to visit an amazing exhibition of paper cut art.

‘Paper Dialogues’ is an artistic collaboration that tells the story of Xiaoguang Qiao and Karen Bit Vejle’s quest in search of dragons – mythical creatures that connect China and Norway, which have played a significant role in both cultures. In China, dragons have a long history; they are still a living part of Chinese culture and their images are adopted in architecture, everyday items and culture festivals – not least with paper cuts.  In Norway, they have an important significance too: dragons are represented in Norse mythology, heroic legends, stave churches and Viking ships. Xiaoguang and Vejle have interpreted their own culture and history into their paper cuts in order to present it to each other and the audience in the form of a visual conversation.


The room was in darkness and so I've had to fartnarkle a lot with this so that you can see how huge this particular piece is. I took advantage of an audio tour which really helped me take in the explanation of what I was seeing. You can see more information about the exhibition here, including a short video by the Danish artist. It will be touring the UK but I'm not sure when, but it's definitely worth visiting if comes nearby to where you live.