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Bovey Lee's Elegiac Crisis Cutouts Mirror Japan's Tsunami And Nuclear Scare

The Huffington Post     First Posted: 04/07/11 12:45 AM ET   Updated: 06/06/11 06:12 AM ET

Bovey Lee's intricate cutouts are a delicate response to disaster. Lee, who made these particular rice paper cutouts in 2008 and 2009, presaged the natural and nuclear crises that have put the world on edge in recent weeks, and her elegiac work feels appropriate where other art might seem garish. This slideshow of some of her most relevant works includes close-up shots of her painstaking detail, which may reflect the scrutiny and obsession with specifics of the media's response to these disruptive events. Lee told us:

The two extremely intricate and dense tsunami cutouts I created, "Tsunami-Enmeshed" and "Tsunami-Oblivious" were inspired by Hokusai's famous woodblock print known as the Great Wave. The three Power Plant cutouts are based on the idea of self-sacrifice in time of crisis, much like the Japanese power plant emergency workers risking their lives for the greater good of their disaster-stricken country.

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Bovey Lee's intricate cutouts are a delicate response to disaster. Lee, who made these particular rice paper cutouts in 2008 and 2009, presaged the natural and nuclear crises that have put the world o...
Bovey Lee's intricate cutouts are a delicate response to disaster. Lee, who made these particular rice paper cutouts in 2008 and 2009, presaged the natural and nuclear crises that have put the world o...
 
 
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
silverwing
11:46 AM on 04/09/2011
Staggeringly beautiful. I work with paper cuts myself, and mine look like a child did them with plastic scissors, next to these!

I have to use thicker paper because I do layered, relief images - these are obviously pinned between two pieces of glass, so the artists can use very thin rice paper. It's tough to get precision with the thicker paper, but thin paper is more fragile, so there are obstacles on either side. I think I'll try rice paper though; my elbows are suffering with the effort of cutting thick paper.

BRAVO to the artist. These are hauntingly beautiful.
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lacasarosada
11:33 AM on 04/08/2011
amazing works, i love it
This user has chosen to opt out of the Badges program
07:31 PM on 04/07/2011
Wow
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GrownupStewie
06:07 PM on 04/07/2011
beautiful...