For roughly 20 years now, Japanese artist Noriko Ambe has been creating sculptural works rendered by cutting into stacks and stacks of paper. Her work resembles three-dimensional topographical maps. Ambe has always been inspired by nature and landscape, but in a recent showing her work has taken a slightly more abstract form.
“Parallel World” was recently on view at Lora Reynolds Gallery in Austin, Texas, where Ambe was showing a series of new works featuring her sculptures of cut paper. Using a razor blade, Ambe cuts 1 sheet at a time, working from the bottom most sheet – the one that will be closest to the wall – to the top.
Although Ambe’s works have typically been informed by her longstanding interest in nature and geology, she recently came to a contradictory conclusion. “Although her work points to the physical world, it is not, itself, natural. Her sculptures are constructions, fabrications. And as much as they are about nature, they are also about artificiality and abstraction.” Therein lies the meaning behind the title of her show: Parallel World.
We visited Ambe in her studio back in 2012. That article can be found right here.
