INTERVIEW
Paper as the body matter of illustration
Carolyn Shapiro talks about the upcoming
'Illustration and the Paper Artefact' symposium
'Illustration and the Paper Artefact' symposium
Cover illustration by Leng Parsons
Falmouth University and the University of Plymouth are jointly organising the conference Illustration and the Paper Artefact, to be held in September 2025. The conference initiator, Carolyn Shapiro, introduces the upcoming event and discusses the ephemerality and intimacy of paper as a material.
INTERVIEW
— Could you talk a little bit about the inspiration for the conference?
— There were a couple of inspiration sources. First of all, I always loved the paper works, the 3D models. In Falmouth University, these cardboard pieces are part of the curriculum during the first year. It doesn’t always get carried through by the time they get to the third year, but sometimes there would be a couple of students who continued on with paper. I’ve always liked it and have supervised really interesting third-year dissertations about paper. Partly the inspiration was Leng Parson’s work, who was a third-year student at the time when the idea of a conference was conceived. Leng was one of the students who carried over this idea of paper construction to the third year, and I thought, gosh, it’s so beautiful, why aren’t we doing more paper construction?
And then, when I co-organised the Transitus symposium in 2022, we had a panel about aspects of paper. I absolutely loved this panel, and since it didn’t quite fit into the scope of Transitus for the journal publication, I thought that it deserved a conference of its own.
Also, years ago, in 2014, I organized a conference at Falmouth called ‘Performing Objects’, which was related: there was quite a lot of paper puppetry, Victorian toy theaters, and pop-up books. It was more of a performance studies conference, and we had people from India, Canada, the US – it was really international, and we kept in touch with the people who took part in it.
There also is an interesting collection of paper artefacts such as cardboard models for the Knee High Theatre in the Falmouth University Archives. I pitched the theme of papercraft to the Falmouth Art Gallery, and they agreed to do an exhibition that would include objects from the University Archives. So, in over a year, as I was talking about potential partnerships, everything came together.
And then, when I co-organised the Transitus symposium in 2022, we had a panel about aspects of paper. I absolutely loved this panel, and since it didn’t quite fit into the scope of Transitus for the journal publication, I thought that it deserved a conference of its own.
Also, years ago, in 2014, I organized a conference at Falmouth called ‘Performing Objects’, which was related: there was quite a lot of paper puppetry, Victorian toy theaters, and pop-up books. It was more of a performance studies conference, and we had people from India, Canada, the US – it was really international, and we kept in touch with the people who took part in it.
There also is an interesting collection of paper artefacts such as cardboard models for the Knee High Theatre in the Falmouth University Archives. I pitched the theme of papercraft to the Falmouth Art Gallery, and they agreed to do an exhibition that would include objects from the University Archives. So, in over a year, as I was talking about potential partnerships, everything came together.
artist spotlight
Lizzie Ridout:
An Unfoldology
An Unfoldology
Created as part of Though Of Real Knowledge There Be Little, Yet Of Books There Are A Plenty, an artists’ bookwork commissioned by Fugitive Arts, US, in which eight artists were invited to respond to Chapter 32: Cetology from Herman Melville’s Moby Dick through the creation of an edition.
In Chapter 32: Cetology, Ishmael attempts a taxonomy of whales, borrowing an analogy from the publishing and bookbinding spheres, and dividing the whales by size into three books: ‘Folio, Octavo & Duodecimo’. The edition I created – An Unfoldology – takes these foldings as its starting point and examines the act of folding paper, as simultaneously both philosophical expansion and reduction, through a series of drawings, perforations, and writing.
In Chapter 32: Cetology, Ishmael attempts a taxonomy of whales, borrowing an analogy from the publishing and bookbinding spheres, and dividing the whales by size into three books: ‘Folio, Octavo & Duodecimo’. The edition I created – An Unfoldology – takes these foldings as its starting point and examines the act of folding paper, as simultaneously both philosophical expansion and reduction, through a series of drawings, perforations, and writing.
— It feels like this is going to be a fantastic space to reimagine what a conference exhibition or a poster can look like.
— Yes, and that’s possible through collaborating with partners like the Falmouth Art Gallery. They have a great collection, and they are very nice to work with. Even though the exhibition we are working on together is not until October, it's inspired by the conference, so there is this kind of impactful continuity, which is what the universities want us to build. We’re also looking for a publisher: we are intrigued by this challenge.
Paper artefacts in education are often treated as part of the learning process, and not the thing in itself. [...] This invisibility is something that I wanted to bring forward.
— For beginner practitioners paper is often the 'invisible' part in a drawing process - something that slips one's mind and evades attention. Do you think this 'invisibility' is somehow reflective of any larger processes in either drawing or illustration, or maybe illustration education?
— My feeling is that it's treated as modelling, rather than the final product, and these models exist for something else. Despite some of the student work being paper artefacts, in education this is often treated as part of the learning process, and not the thing in itself. In fact, even in the Falmouth University Archives we have these absolutely beautiful set design models made of paper, but they are ‘just models’. And this invisibility is something that I wanted to bring forward in the conference a bit more: for instance, we will have a number of curatorial workshops, where people will be able to put together their own mini-exhibitions inspired by the paper models collection. I think one of the reasons people are responding so well to the ideas of the paper conference and to curating paper-themed work is the tactility of paper, and the appeal of that tactility.
— My feeling is that it's treated as modelling, rather than the final product, and these models exist for something else. Despite some of the student work being paper artefacts, in education this is often treated as part of the learning process, and not the thing in itself. In fact, even in the Falmouth University Archives we have these absolutely beautiful set design models made of paper, but they are ‘just models’. And this invisibility is something that I wanted to bring forward in the conference a bit more: for instance, we will have a number of curatorial workshops, where people will be able to put together their own mini-exhibitions inspired by the paper models collection. I think one of the reasons people are responding so well to the ideas of the paper conference and to curating paper-themed work is the tactility of paper, and the appeal of that tactility.
Illustration by Leng Parsons
— There's something interesting about the 'provisional', ephemeral nature of paper as a material – which seems to be reflected in architecture and design of living spaces, but also in illustration (as compared to, let's say, painting). Do you think working with paper can help us establish some sort of a deeper relationship with ephemerality, instability, the lack of certainty?
— Yes, maybe we could think of it through the idea of ephemerality.
But also there’s the digital world, which shares this idea of ephemerality. It’s just very interesting how you can approach materiality in the world that’s not so material anymore. Many people feel a sense of sentimentality and nostalgia for materiality.
This is not exactly related to paper, but I often wonder about the tattoo phenomenon: people need markers of permanent presence on their bodies, because we’re in so many ways disembodied right now in the world. So people are finding ways of modifying their bodies and are finding ways of marking the physicality of the body. I feel this process shares similar features with this gravitation towards tactility and paper.
But also there’s the digital world, which shares this idea of ephemerality. It’s just very interesting how you can approach materiality in the world that’s not so material anymore. Many people feel a sense of sentimentality and nostalgia for materiality.
This is not exactly related to paper, but I often wonder about the tattoo phenomenon: people need markers of permanent presence on their bodies, because we’re in so many ways disembodied right now in the world. So people are finding ways of modifying their bodies and are finding ways of marking the physicality of the body. I feel this process shares similar features with this gravitation towards tactility and paper.
Illustrations by John Kilburn
When talking about paper we are embracing nostalgia and materiality, but we have to think about the digital as well
— I also find it really interesting how tattooing treats the body as a surface, pretty much like drawing treats paper, with an immediate connection to the surfaces of screens and digital 3D objects. Treating paper as a surface probably allows avoiding a binary and simplistic distinction between the digital and the physical.
— I had a conversation with an archivist, who was talking about digitising paper artefacts that are gradually disintegrating – because they wanted to make people feel able to “touch” them on the screen. I would imagine that would mean that a paper artefact is treated as a surface. Even though when talking about paper we are embracing nostalgia and materiality, of course we have to think about the digital as well, so I’m very happy if the participants push the limits of the call for papers and posters.
— I had a conversation with an archivist, who was talking about digitising paper artefacts that are gradually disintegrating – because they wanted to make people feel able to “touch” them on the screen. I would imagine that would mean that a paper artefact is treated as a surface. Even though when talking about paper we are embracing nostalgia and materiality, of course we have to think about the digital as well, so I’m very happy if the participants push the limits of the call for papers and posters.
— You mentioned performative projects and the performative side of paper artefacts. What do you think in this respect the posters or conference presentation could look like?
— When I’m talking about performativity, I’m mainly referring to Austin’s speech act theory – objects performing rather than describing an action. I’m hoping we will get some proposals for paper object posters, and performances as well, and we would find venues for these. We also hope to have a lot of workshops – I feel like this will be a big part of the conference – whether these would be about theater or other kinds of making.
Duncan Cameron, Puffin masks for ‘Restore Nature Now’, the march on 22/06/2024, London