Papercraft Research

After looking through all of the links I chose to do more research into the artist duo Zim & Zou. I was drawn to their "Colorful Paper Village" and "Atlantis" installations because they remind me of the video game "Little Big Planet" that I used to play with my sisters a lot as kids. I find whimsical little worlds to be very endearing because they take my imagination on a journey. I spent a good while staring at the photos from both of these installations thinking of how tiny creatures would live in the environments and interact in the paper worlds that Zim & Zou created. I'm not particularly jazzed that these designs were created for a fashion brand but we're all starving artists living in the hell that is late-stage capitalism so I am looking past the consumerism aspect of these two works because I love them so much.

Lucie Thomas and Thibault Zimmermann are the two French artists based in Dordogne, France, that make up Zim & Zou. They both studied graphic design for three years but realized they preferred making real objects in 3D out of paper over creating on a computer. Their preferred materials to work with are paper, fabric, wood, and leather. Together they find inspiration in nature and the technological world. This is clear in the compositional details they put into their design process. The pair have said paper is their preferred medium because it “inspires them for its versatility, infinite range of colors and unique textures."

For the first tryptic installation "Atlantis," I enjoy the intricacies in the details of the buildings, the creatures, and how the three window installations for this work compliment each other. I always gravitate towards ocean environments because of the fascination I've had with the ocean since childhood. There are specific items from the fashion brand integrated into each installation and upon first glance, the items look like they're a part of the paper environment. My personal favorite out of the three is the purple window that has an angelfish, a sea horse, a shrimp, and a bunch of coral. The object from the fashion brand in this window is a small set of dinnerware including a cup, bowl, and plate. This integration of object and the paper installation was inspiring to me because I'm a third-year ceramics major and this makes me think about how I could create paper environments to compliment my ceramics projects. In the background, there is a tall built structure with what looks like a staircase coming from the cylinder with a really nice base of different colored paper and shapes.

The second installation that Zim & Zou did for Hermes was titled "Forest Folks." Their website has a small write-up about the inspiration for this installation: "Nature is surrounding us and never cease to evolve since its beginning. Its run defines the world we’re living in. Nature is linked to every living beings, and every living being is linked to it. In this project, spectators have a sneak pick of the curious characters living inside this environment. This microscopic point of view, where plants and other vegetal reign as masters, is like a kind of picture, a flash, a precise instant in nature’s unrestrained run. Life is everywhere, flowers are growing and carry away its inhabitants in their impetus. This mysterious people is evolving, building, and living right in the heart of the nature, revealing a fragment of their daily life."

I was first drawn to this work because of the large mushroom designs and the color palette in both window installations. When I went to Zim & Zou's website I saw the more detailed photos of the paper environments and the design process of the tiny structures they built. This installation in particular reminded me most of "Little Big Planet." There is a lot of detail in the tiny structures that are a part of this installation that are beautiful and kind of mind-blowing with the amount of detail put into them. I really like the integration of a ceramic tea set in this part of the installation and how the tiny paper figures interact with the objects. Their placement makes it appear like the figures are worshipping the objects or making them a part of their mushroom world.