The revival movement of papercraft
(Kang Chiao art exhibition: telling stories with artwork)
Every year, our school hold an art exhibition to cultivate students’ aesthetic sensibility, to encourage students to create artwork, and to enable students to tell their own stories with artwork. The raging COVID-19 pandemic during these two years has taken many people’s life ruthlessly. Confronting the sudden loss of friends and families and the threat of the disease, how should we express consolation and fear with artwork?
2.Motivation and Research Questions
Upon knowing that we were going to study topics related to “papercraft”, everyone looked puzzled. What is papercraft? Is it a kind of craft made with paper? After looking up the information about papercraft, we learned the usage, manufacturing method, history and innovation of papercraft. Since we didn’t know much about traditional crafts, we didn’t possess the stereotype that the only usage of papercraft is burning them at funerals. We were able to consider papercraft as a form of art.
After collecting more and more information from a variety of resources, we discovered that not everyone possesses the same open-mindedness. Some people cannot accept papercraft as the artwork presented in exhibitions. However, some Westerners are fascinated by this kind of craft that can be manufactured with paper and some other simple materials. They even bring the art of papercraft overseas, enabling papercraft to thrive in other areas. Some Taiwanese rising artists provide papercraft new lives through filming short animations, bestowing traditional papercraft new functions and innovations.
To stop the decline of traditional culture, we decided to promote papercraft, allowing people around us to know more about this kind of “aesthetic” art. We discovered that paperwork is a type of art unknown to most people. As time changes, the number of people who know about papercraft is decreasing, and only a few shops that manufacture papercraft are left. We choose this topic with the hope of enabling people to learn about papercraft as a traditional art and its innovations under the trends of a new age.
Recently, the papercraft in Taiwan gradually evolves to be a kind of artwork with the value of collection. However, due to the declining demand of papercraft, many papercraft shops are transforming or closing. We hope to promote the culture of papercraft through this Cyberfair, eliminating people’s stereotypes regarding it and enable more people to learn about the culture and innovations of papercraft.
We would like to learn about why papercraft evolves from tools for worshiping ancestors to artwork in the eye of modern people. We also look forward to interviewing the innovative approaches used by traditional papercraft shops, and comparing the producing methods and procedures of different types of papercraft.
Therefore, the questions we are going to study this time are as follows:
(1.)Learn about the historical meaning and culture of papercraft.
(2.)Find out the manufacturing methods and skills of papercraft.
(3.)Study the heyday of papercraft in modern Taiwanese society and the reasons of its gradual decline.
(4.)Discover the various forms of expression of papercraft techniques.
(5.)Conceive the ways to promote papercraft techniques.
(6.)Interview people of different ages for their perspectives on papercraft.
(7.)Compare the perspectives of Easterners and Westerners on papercraft.
4.Research process and structure
First, we would like to understand the history and development of papercraft and other paper artwork in Taiwan and China. After that, we would investigate the manufacturing method of papercraft and the skills passed on generations after generations through interviewing artisans. In the end, we will hold a exhibition to promote this soon-to-be-lost art and technique.
