MANILA, PHILIPPINES — Handcrafted paper artworks take us back to the beautiful nostalgia of childhood when folding miniature airplanes and sketching stick figures were considered as our first attempts to make art.
Call it old-fashioned but this humble medium is most likely here to stay for a long time even with the advent of digital age. Simple yet powerful beyond measure, paper can be anything from a blue lobster, to a wriggly octopus, to fancy little windmills and big mountain…
Or even a pop-up chapel where people can hold funerals!
Professional creative Benja Harney made all these things possible, intricately perfecting his bespoke paper masterpieces through his Sydney-based studio Paperform.
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“I love paper,” said the renowned paper engineer as he presented his works virtually to the delegates of Graphika Online 2021, the premier creativity conference in the Philippines. “It’s my passion and we do anything and everything with paper. We make sculpture, packaging, illustration, installation.”
In his talk, Benja shared the first project he did way back in college, “I did this series of small pop-up books and that really opened up the door for me to being really excited about paper and starting on my paper journey.”
Now a pioneer in the art of paper engineering, he works both in Australia and internationally with some of the largest brands — doing oversized trainer for Adidas, paper wings for Hermès Christmas windows, floating air factory for Nike Air Max Day, dandelion-themed window display for Samsung, 3D paper sets for Vogue Living, spectrum bag for Telstra, 3D chai tea ingredients for T2, and more. Among his studio’s other clients are H&M, Zara, Facebook, Google and Havaianas.
One of the highlights of his career was making Kylie Minogue’s pop-up book entitled “Goddess Edition” and presenting it to her in Hong Kong. Benja was also invited by the City of Sydney to create the official branding of their 2016 New Year’s Eve festivities — another great milestone indeed.
“This was probably one of the biggest moments of my career as someone who grew up here in Sydney — to have my work celebrating the New Year’s Eve… It’s such a great honor. It was a very exciting and emotional night,” he said.
Have you ever heard of a portable chapel made of paper which could be used as an alternative space for funeral ceremonies? An Australian company worked with Paperform to make this unique concept come to life.
“These elements could all come apart and then you can take all these elements to your particular location and you can build them up and form this kind of chapel where you can have a ceremony for your deceased loved one and it could be anywhere really,” Benja said.
He also crafted a paper illustration for Parklife music festival in Australia and was commissioned by The Sydney Opera House to design advertising materials.
Benja also made big paper works: a 9-meter long hanging sculpture of ‘Kirin’ (a Japanese mythological creature) at the Sydney Festival, thousands of paper windmills for the Chinese New Year, 10-meter tall installation for The Big Design Market in Melbourne, 8-meter tall flower paper objects in Queensland and a marvelous suspended artwork for the National Gallery of Victoria’s Book Week.
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“Paper is fantastic because it’s relatively easy to install and also when your done with it, it can be recycled. In some ways it’s a very environmental material to use,” he said.
Speaking of recycling, he also created papier-mâché furniture made of paper scraps from their previous works for an exhibition called “Interpretations V.”
Aside from big installation arts, Paperform also made miniature dioramas like the High Tea and The Crown Jewels, as well as a cutesy little paper set composed of mini plants, tiny furniture, small CD players.
Another form of visual feast, paper food is one of the things Benja does best — from fruits, berries, seafoods to weird desserts. He also made a mouthwatering pop-up cake cookbook for Katherine Sabbath, a famous Aussie baker.
Paper flowers, anyone? Drawing inspiration from the garden of Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, Benja installed paper flowers in the Art Gallery of New South Wales where the works of the couple were exhibited.
“It’s a little bit dark and edgy but also beautiful and bright. People really relate to paper flowers,” he said, also mentioning that they often integrate Australian motif in their works because of its distinctive flora and fauna.
Benja also loves making paper animals like the ones he showed on his slides: a big cat headdress, a lovely chameleon illustration, insect pop-ups and oversized origami of animals.
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The list goes on for his artistic creations but despite all his success in the field, Benja continues to reinvent his art. He found a way where he can use paper as the medium for attachments with no glue or tape needed.
“I started this series of artworks called the New Platonic artworks and basically, it was a series of fine artworks that I made which were inspired by the Platonic Solids which are the simplest geometric forms you can use which were first identified by the great philosopher Plato,” he shared.
And from this idea, new projects were born, thus cementing the belief that possibilities are endless with paper.
Check out more of Benja Harney/Paperform on Instagram and Twitter.
adobo magazine is an official media partner of Graphika Online 2021.
