Sachiko Abe, a Japanese artist, cuts fine strips of paper for hours on end in her performance series titled Cut Papers. Having first discovered the calming effects of shredding paper over 15 years ago while admitted at an insane asylum, the artist now explores the act’s meditative properties as an art form. Sachiko recently performed Cut Papers #13 this year at the 18th Biennale of Sydney at Cockatoo Island.
Sachiko states: “Throughout my artistic career, my primary focus has been the issue of identity within modern society, in which individuals are categorised for what they are and how they function in maintaining economic machinery. In the process of exploring my essential discomfort against such social conditions, I started the act of cutting papers in 1995. I was not named as an artist then. Later in 2004, I finally found a way to present my ordinary act as an artwork called Cut Papers. The act of cutting is a constant exercise through which I organise and structure my random thoughts. The rhythm of the scissors, the fineness and the length of the paper strip correspond to the process of my thinking, and its effect to the body. While essentially personal, Cut Papers is a necessary practice for me to formulate my relationship to the external world. The act defines and redefines the boundary between the self and the other, and helps to recover a meaningful relationship with one another. Complete silence and neutral white space allow the audience to focus purely on the sound of scissors and slight movement of the cut papers. The closed environment also invites the viewer to synchronise with the tide of emotion and contemplation created by the performance. Though I have become an artist, and my action an artwork, I still cut papers everyday. In Cut Papers, there is no distinction between the act as one of necessity and as one for art.”
