week one { history }

"Few will have the greatness to bend history itself; but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation." —Robert F. Kennedy

In ancient China, paper cutting was considered an honoured folk art as the smooth cuts on paper resembled the “spirit of line.” The “spirit of line” resembled the artist’s value for the quality of their blades which reflected the "relation between material and line" {Cheng 15}. The Chinese concept was that every line has its own perspective and is an independent whole. Yet, every part is also a continuation of a whole {Cheng 16}. It is said that "through continuous creation of their own parts and wholes,” the artists achieve serenity and happiness {Cheng 16}. Before the invention of paper in 105 AD by Ts’ai Lun, a Chinese court official, craftsmen used papyrus and silk for calligraphy, the primary reason for the invention of paper. Ts’ai Lun’s paper consisted of old rags, hemp, tree bark, and fish nets {Papercut}. Chinese papercuts were also used as decorations for windows, walls, ceilings, lanterns, and as stencils for lacquerware, pottery, and porcelain. The tools engaged in papercutting consisted of “a pair of sharp scissors, razor-edged, quill-shaped knives or pen-knives with a hone and oil for sharpening, and good-quality paper” {Papercut}. 

Since the invention of paper, different cultures have become accustomed to papercutting. From c. AD 600, waxed-paper stencils were made in Japan. In 16^th century Mexico, silhouettes were cut and sewn from bark paper by the Otami Indians as “votive offerings to the gods” {Papercut}. In England “heraldic devices” and narrative pictures were cut in animal hides. By the 17^th century, the exchange of cut-paper greeting cards was established in Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland {Papercut}. In the 18^th century, home-made and cut-paper valentines became a tradition among Dutch and German Pennsylvanians in the USA. Most of these papercuts were created by amateurs and preserved as keepsakes, “although by the 18^th century pin-pricked and lace-cut papers were produced by professional papercutters for use in early valentines, New Year cards and similar items” {Papercut}. By the mid-19^th century, handcut papers were largely outmoded as the Industrial era rose with machine production {Papercut}.

Papercut work credited to Chinese paper-cuts:

 

Sources:

 A Cheng, Barbara Shen and Richard Buchanan Design Issues, Vol. 7, No. 2 (Spring, 1991), pp. 5-16 <http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.eciad.ca:2048/stable/1511402>.

"Papercut." Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press. Web. 5 Jun. 2014. <http://www.oxfordartonline.com/subscriber/article/grove/art/T065206>.