Big dragon follows paper trail

Sunday 01 January 2017

Two internationally celebrated artists who brought a nine-metre long Chinese paper-cut dragon to Jersey have left behind a legacy to create the Island's own mythical 'Paper dialogue'.

During their visit in November Professor Xiaoguang Qiao from China and Norwegian artist Karen Bit Vejle passed on their cutting skills to a group of local artists who will oversee a project to make a big paper-cut ‘Jersey Dragon'.

The hugely successful ‘Paper Dialogues - the Dragon and our Stories’ exhibition at the Town Hall featured the nine-metre long Chinese paper-cut dragon and seven large paper-cut dragon eggs – a collaboration that told the story of the two artists' quest in search of dragons. 

Over 5,000 visitors came to see their work and was the first time ‘Paper Dialogues’ had been displayed in Great Britain, having already been exhibited to great acclaim in Beijing, Shanghai, Oslo and Trondheim.

(Pictured: Norwegian artist Karen Bit Vejle)

(Pictured: Professor Xiaoguang Qiao from China)

This year sees the launch of ‘Paper Talks’ as part of the Skipton Art Series – a legacy to the artists' work. During their visit to the Island, the pair ran a combined Masterclass teaching local artists how to paper-cut. They'll now work on creating their own pieces of paper-cut work and will be responsible for igniting a huge community outreach programme with local school children and the general public.

The work created by students and the community will form Jersey’s own ‘paper dialogue’ - a big paper-cut ‘Jersey Dragon' and will be exhibited in a celebratory showcase thanks to support from Skipton International, the One Foundation, JEDFAS, and the States of Jersey.

Jersey Arts Trust moved home in 2016 and are now located at Chateau Vermont, where they will start to roll out their creative residency programme. They have already hosted a few artistic residencies in the short time they have been here, and say they expect to do many more in 2017.

2016 was an exciting year for JAT and saw Skipton Open Studios taking place for the 8^th year running. The event saw artists open up the doors of their studios for two weekends, as well as an event at the Harve des Pas Lido, a taster exhibition at CCA Galleries International and the pilot for an interactive self-exploratory project called ‘Who Am I’ delivered with the support of Signtech.

Jersey Arts Trust say they have other exciting projects in the pipeline, including a very big public art project for Skipton Art Series, a piece of puppetry storytelling, another instalment of their Artist Lock In programme, a community residency project run in conjunction with professional local curators and a new look and feel for the JAT that reflects their mission to support the creation of new work.