Artist Turns Her Knife on a Quintessential New England Village
Ridgefield, CT – Renowned French paper cut artist Béatrice Coron will premiere her new work, "Etched in Stone," an intricate interpretation of the story of Ridgefield, Connecticut, during her solo exhibition, Stories by a Thousand Cuts, at Watershed Gallery beginning Saturday, May 11th.
Coron, who has developed a language of storytelling by paper cutting multi-layered stories in the construction medium, Tyvek, has her work in collections around the world, including the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
For "Etched in Stone," Coron wielded her knife to tell the stories of Ridgefielders themselves.
In February Coron visited the village to mine personal histories and folklore from notable citizens like First Selectman Rudy Marconi, entrepreneurs Laura and Joe Ancona, and The New Yorker illustrator Roz Chast. The artist toured and took detailed notes while talking with these and other citizens such as Allison Stockel of The Ridgefield Playhouse, Kerry Anne Ducey of Hamlet Hub, and Rachel Volpone of the Ridgefield Guild of Artists.
Coron developed a concept shortly after her visit, but as her knife charted a path across the paper, images were shaped and reshaped by her boundless imagination
"It's definitely labor intensive," says Coron, who often spends 12 hours a day on her artwork. "I have to think about structure, in that everything is connected. It's like a game, but it's more like a philosophical wandering."
The finished work is nearly 16 square feet and reveals a Ridgefield that is by turns both whimsical and haunting. Maurice Sendak's Wild Things dance upon rooftops, Revolutionary War skeletons lay buried beneath a stone wall, and a Humvee sits perched atop a crumbling Cass Gilbert fountain.
Three editions of "Etched in Stone," along with several other papercuts – including a dress from her collection of wearable art – will be on display during Coron's exhibition at Watershed Gallery.
"Beatrice's work requires you to spend time with it," says Jennifer Mathy, director of the gallery. "New stories, new images, reveal themselves to you as you look. She brings a sense of humor and true joy to her work, and in this case, to the lives of the people of Ridgefield."
Coron also has told her cut-out stories through many public and private installations and objects, constructed in a variety of materials, including metal, stone and glass. She also has created many art books. And, in 2009, her "All Around Town" art card could be seen by the passengers of several New York City subway lines as part of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's Arts in Transit program.
She is a veteran presenter at TED (a global set of conferences addressing a range of topics from science and culture). In 2011, Coron donned a magnificent papercut cape cut and described her creative process and the way her stories develop from snips and slices. The 2013 TED Conference featured the premiere of filmmaker James Stewart's animated 3D short, Béatrice Coron's Daily Battles, a film about Coron's breathtaking, 61-panel papercut masterwork of medieval life.
"My creative inspiration comes from everything I see and everything I read," says Coron. "For each theme, one story leads to the next, and the creation process weaves different layers of our relations to the universe. In papercutting, as in life, everything is connected."
Beatrice Coron: Stories By a Thousand Cuts runs through June 14 at Watershed Gallery, 23 Governor Street. Gallery hours are 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., Tuesdays to Fridays; 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays; and Sundays 1 to 5 p.m. 203-438-4387, www.watershedgallery.com.