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Defined as a paper lace-maker, Valentine Louafi made papercutting her speciality.
An ode to minimalism that requires steadiness, patience and an ounce of perfectionnism, as "painting" with a blade doesn't give room to any mistakes. Her papercuttings offer a surgical precision combined with intricate and stunningly expressive portraits. My work has always been drawn to the representation of silhouette due to its delicate sharpness. Its complex simplicity and strong contrasted nature evokes endless depth and meaning |
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Her actual work is not strictly silhouette-like, but she kept the essence, playing with shadows, and building with negative space.
It's an art of balance and an art of emptiness. To reveal the subject, you need to remove material. To build with the void. To build with the empty space. Void is necessary, in all existing things. From atomic scale to Universe scale. Negative needs positive, light needs shadow. THE CREATIVE PROCESS IS A METAPHOR OF THE CREATION AND ESSENCE OF LIFE ITSELF. Her favorite subject is by far portrait. She's inspired by people. Mostly by indigenous cultures from around the globe practicing body art and body modifications, as a ritual, esthetical or societal purpose. The initial idea was driven by a will to highlight and magnify the diversity of the comprehension of what we call beauty. Maybe it's kind of me doing my part for the preservation of ancient cultural practices. My art is a out of time space where bridges between ancient and new cultures are created, protecting and giving thanks to ancestral knowledges. Faces are at the core of her art and a key of her imagery. Life marked on the skin fascinates her. Expressions fascinate her. They are home to the sparkle of life scribing itself on the natural canvas. Her cutting techniques reveal an existence carved in a skin, housed within a sight, an attitude etc...She created a cuttout technique able to render the texures and the contrasts made of micro cuttings connected in an intuitive and organically way.
Eyes are my favourite thing to draw and cut. Capturing the soul, pouring into it my own soul, body, mind, heart. And give the resultant blend back to the world She is seeking to establish a conversation between the observers and the artworks meant to engage them to feel connected in a sense of oneness.
Valentine also gives several lives to her original papercuts by merging her interest in digital art and new technology with her love symmetry and patterns art. Therefore she creates digital patterns from her papercuts and uses them as die for laser cutting and engraving purpose.
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