Select a region
It does not blow fire but it measures nine metres, has a thousand finely cut paper scales and was created by Islanders aged six to 102. Jersey's first paper dragon, which has yet to be named, will make its flying debut at the library on Monday.
The 3D installation was created under the guidance of seven local artists with over 600 students, community groups and members of the public as part of the Skipton Art Series' Island-wide initiative 'Paper Talks.'
The community project comes on the heels of the successful ‘Paper Dialogues - the Dragon and our Stories’ exhibition by Chinese professor Xiaoguang Qiao and Norwegian artist Karen Bit Vejle, which received over 5,000 visitors in the Town Hall last October.
While they were in Jersey, Professor Qiao and Ms Bit Vejle ran masterclasses with seven local artists, selected by the Arts Trust - Abi Overland, Anna Shipley, Ben Robertson, Joanna Brown, Karen Le Roy Harris, Lizi Hill and Maria Tarrant - to teach them the intricate art of psaligraphy, better known as paper cutting.
The seven artists, most of them novices in the art of paper cutting, then went on to work on their own paper-cut pieces - currently exhibited at the Berni Gallery. To keep Professor Qiao's legacy alive they've also ran more than 50 workshops with community groups, members of the public and more than 600 students from 22 different schools, in what Lizi Hill describes as a "real cycle of learning."
She says: "We learnt a lot from the people we met, especially the children. As artists, we don't know everything and they brought different ideas. There was a real gentle atmosphere during the sessions."
Lorraine McLean, Mortgage Sales Manager at Skipton International, said: “The Paper Dialogues exhibition captured the imagination of the public, and these workshops allow people to have a go at this ancient art of paper cutting for themselves. It’s really exciting to think that everything people create in the workshops will go towards creating a fabulous new art work – Jersey’s first paper dragon."
The community-made paper dragon, whose thousand intricately cut paper scales are attached to a metal skeleton, echoes the 'Paper Dialogues' paper specimen, but it has something special according to Karen Le Roy. "Everyone made scales that represented them and their different cultures. It is an actual representation of the diversity of the Island and it brings out different aspects of the community."
Lizi adds: "It is a beautiful thing which brought together people from all walks of life. In one session, I was working with a three-year-old and a 103-year-old woman. It was really inspirational and empowering and the dragon shows what happens when individual pieces come into a whole."
While the dragon is set to hang from the ceiling of the library until 30 June, the artists who took part in its creation have big hopes for its future. Lizi says: "This has help connect our small, tiny Island to different parts of the world, I think it is the start of something really beautiful in Jersey. I hope the dragon will go fly around the world on adventures."
Comments
Comments on this story express the views of the commentator only, not Bailiwick Publishing. We are unable to guarantee the accuracy of any of those comments.