Drawing with Scissors at Parallax

I’M TAKING A NEW DEPARTURE next week in taking a stand at the Parallax Art Fair. It takes place at the Old Town Hall, on the Kings Rd in Chelsea, on Saturday 28th February and Sunday 1st March.

It’s a very different show to the usual events-related exhibitions I take part in, so I’m a bit apprehensive about it!

I’ve known about Parallax for many years, and have long wanted to take part. Yet, somehow, I was always either overseas, or booked to cut silhouettes at weddings on the weekends it took place. I’ll be taking the opportunity to exhibit the series of Rakugo paper cuttings I made in 2024 and 2025, as well as my limited-edition handmade book Railway Silhouettes from Switzerland which I launched at the end of last year.

Drawing with Scissors

Rakugo Paper Cuttings

You may have heard me describe the act of cutting paper as being like drawing with scissors. In truth, I find the relationship between drawing and cutting often mysterious and always deeply fascinating. In this series of paper cuttings I set out to explore that relationship more deeply by taking a series of drawings – which I created over a few days on a recent visit to Japan – and cutting out each gestural line, slowly and deliberately with scissors. The experiment pushed the limits of what is (for me) technically possible with a pair of scissors. It resulted in a series of 21 paper cuttings, which can give the impression of having been scribbled down in a minute or two, but which actually took many hours of cutting. I found myself really enjoying this ambiguity of form and am keen to share them with others.

These paper cuttings will be available both mounted on glass and framed (as shown above) and as unmounted paper cuttings, kept safe in a folio. You can read more about the project here.

Railway Silhouettes from Switzerland

This project also explores what it really means to draw with scissors, but from a different perspective. During a railway journey across Switzerland with Kazumi I created a series of mixed-media silhouettes – created with a combination of drawing and paper cutting – to form a continuous visual record of the trip. To emphasise the narrative element of the project I mounted them day by day into a Japanese leporello-style sketchbook. I then used a combination of printing and laser cutting to create a (relatively) affordable limited edition of 50 handmade copies of the original sketchbook.

I will have the original sketchbook with me at the event, as well as a few other similar sketchbooks, for those who’d like to see them. However, these won’t be for sale I’m afraid as I’m too attached to them! You can read more about the project here.

Fine Art Conversations

I’m hoping these two projects will act as a discussion point for visitors to the show. I’ve always enjoyed talking about art, to the extent that I sometimes think this is the main reason I spend so much time creating it! I’ll also, of course, have my scissors to hand, ready to create impromptu portraits for anybody who shows more than a passing interest in my work.

I’m approaching this show with some trepidation. I’m very conscious that the world of Fine Art does not normally view ex-street artists and silhouettists as artists “worthy of serious consideration” (as evidenced by my various unsuccessful attempts to use silhouette cutting as the basis for PhD projects). In fairness, this is a long tradition, and I know many past silhouettists whose work I’ve collected over the years suffered from similar cultural prejudices. Silhouettes are often regarded as a distinctly low-brow form of art!

I’ve never minded too much, as the compensation is the sheer amazement with which I’m greeted every time I begin cutting. Yet, after so many years, I still can’t rid myself of a deeply-held feeling that my approach to drawing with scissors has more to offer than entertainment value, and does have something useful to say to the occasionally elitist fine-art world. Do you agree?

Historical Silhouettists on Substack

Speaking of past silhouettists, I’m currently working on a blog about Claude Marin, a Parisian street artist who cut a portrait of my grandmother soon after the war. I’ll write again, soon after the Parallax show, once this is ready for publication. However, I realise that these historical blogs I’ve been writing are beginning to amass into a considerable body of work, so am wondering there’s another book in them? I’m always amazed by how little is known, or has ever been published, about these obscure but interesting artists.

As a preamble to compiling them into a book, I plan to republish each of them, in longer form, using Substack. I’ve taken the @silhouettist name on the platform and plan to start posting articles there soon, beginning with my upcoming Claude Marin blog. If you’re a user of Substack why not follow me there as well? I’ll be focussing purely on my historical research into the niche art I practice.

I hope you enjoyed this post. Please do leave a comment below so I know you were here!