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Arts·Paper Cuts

We're mesmerized by the paper cutting and folding magic of Pauline Loctin

Using two basic origami folds, artist Pauline Loctin (a.k.a. Miss Cloudy) has managed to make paper sculptural, mystical — and entirely hypnotizing.

'I want to push the boundaries. When they think it's not paper, I win'

Lise Hosein · CBC Arts ·

We're mesmerized by the paper cutting and folding magic of Pauline Loctin

5 years ago
Duration 4:18
Using two basic origami folds, artist Pauline Loctin (aka Miss Cloudy) has managed to make paper sculptural, mystical - and entirely hypnotizing.

This video is part of our new series Paper Cuts, in which you get to be hypnotized by artists doing incredible things with paper, scissors, glue sticks and X-Acto knives.

A while back, we brought you the story of Pauline Loctin, a.k.a. Miss Cloudy. She was getting a ton of attention for her origami costumes that blended the Japanese paper-folding art with couture costumes in photographs featuring renowned dancers.

See artist Pauline Loctin make these pieces in the video above. (Nicholas Castel)

We decided to return to Loctin's studio to find out exactly how she makes the paper sculptures that are optically spellbinding and seem almost impossible to make happen...and it turns out that it's as complicated as it seems. Using a variety of tools, Loctin draws, cuts, folds and bends until paper becomes a limitless and otherworldly material.

In this video by filmmaker Nicholas Castel, you'll watch as Loctin creates paper elements for new works, using basic mountain and valley folds. The results, though, are anything but basic.

Pauline Loctin in her studio. (Nicholas Castel)
I never do animals. That's why I don't say anymore than I am an origami artist. They just want you to make birds and I hate to do birds. I doesn't interest me. I want to push the boundaries. When they think it's not paper, I win.- Pauline Loctin
Pauline Loctin's paper costumes, previously featured on CBC Arts. (Pauline Loctin)

Follow Pauline Loctin, a.k.a. Miss Cloudy, here. And stay tuned for more Paper Cuts artists to come!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Lise Hosein

Lise Hosein is a producer at CBC Arts. Before that, she was an arts reporter at JazzFM 91, an interview producer at George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight and a PhD candidate at the University of Toronto. When she's not at her CBC Arts desk she's sometimes an art history instructor and is always quite terrified of bees.

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