This Talented 3D Sculptor Blows a Breath of Life Into Paper

The amazing paper-cutting art started visiting galleries when Chinese artist Li Hongbo decided to give it a serious sculpture shape. Instead of dancing dragons at a Beijing theater or hanging paper lanterns at Chinese New Year celebrations, the traditional art is transformed into new beauty.

Li Hongbo uses scissors to cut thousands of tiny layered paper pieces into 3D shapes of human bodies and faces. His precision is remarkable and his patience admirable. Li makes interaction with his statues possible, by allowing visitors to feel the creases and the cuts and move them in an accordion-like fashion. Inspired by the paper cutting tradition, he works in his Beijing studio with glue and classic sculpting tools, to give shape to these phenomenal, flexible faces and bodies who make grimaces when you touch them.