Charlotte Søeborg Ohlsen

I'm fascinated by creating spacious narratives out of the flat, strong paper. I like to fantasize about the millions of years old organisms that plants and insects are. I am preoccupied with aesthetics and decay, the eerie, the ugly and the beautiful. That which makes it shudder and giggle in us. That which creates curiosity and joy, and that which gives us pleasure.
Charlotte has created her own unique way of cutting and folding her flowers and insects and most often works in black paper.”

“I have created a dogma for myself for the sake of the challenge; The rule is that the insects are created out of one continuous piece of paper and cut with scissors and assembled without glue. It's a way of drawing for me, using the paper instead of the black ink. Outlining objects in paper is exciting because I like working with the possibilities of paper and its limitations. It is certainly not all kinds of paper that can be used. But it is certain that a new insect-like creature will come out of the paper every time.”

Charlotte often prepares and experiments on paper by putting several layers together, varnishing it to create the right stiffness, without the paper breaking. It's a bit like the ink you choose to draw with - the choice of paper is crucial to the finished look and Charlotte has been far and wide to land on her favorite paper - the black 160 g / m2 from Swedish Lessebo Paper, which is of course environmentally friendly produced.

“Paper is at once strong and delicate, a bit like the nature I try to produce - if my works can also help bring focus on biodiversity and how important it is - not least for our own survival, but also that we cherish nature, then I am happy”