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Throughout history, there have been many artists who have recreated their childhood through disciplines such as painting, photography, cinema and music. Sometimes they relive their own history to deal with trauma, other times revisiting the memory of a happy moment. Falling into this second category is “Jersey, My Childhood Home”, one of the earliest works by Layla May Arthur, who was born and lived the first 18 years of her life in the largest of the Channel Islands.
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The piece is made up of 12 panels, each of which represents one of Jersey’s parishes, into which the artist has poured her memories of these places. The cliffs, the sky, the paths, the buildings, the fauna and flora, the islanders… It is hard to believe that each silhouette was made by hand with cut-out paper patterns, which are then used to project shadows, two of the major characteristics of the work of this internationally recognised artist.
Theatrical scenery
Layla May Arthur first discovered paper art at an exhibition in Jersey, just before she moved to Groningen, a city in the northern Netherlands, to study at Minerva Art Academy. She was captivated by the idea of being able to walk between metres of installations made from just one very basic material. Since then, she focused her career in this field, as can be seen in her graduation project, “The Storyteller, The Listener, and Our Story”.
The inspiration for this immersive installation lies in the stories her parents would tell her as a child, about trips they’d made to distant lands. The creator dreamed about these stories, stories which required a storyteller and a listener, from which came the title of the work, extolling the oral tradition through a fully theatrical setting.
Architectural sculptures
Paper sculptures are another of Layla May Arthur’s specialities, characterised by incredibly complex detailing, as can be seen, for example, in the railings of “The Staircase”.
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In “Where We All Meet”, she blends architectural forms from different cultures in order to celebrate and recognise the way that the Hanze University of Applied Sciences in Groningen welcomes students in, where they can learn both knowledge and ways to interact with one another. To give a sense of the scale of the sculpture, the artist spent four months non-stop constructing it.
Her fascination with Italian ceilings led her to investigate how stone reliefs could be translated to paper. In “Unfolded”, she manipulates paper into sculptural reliefs using only glue and a scalpel, but with countless layers, evoking in the audience comparisons to materials such as cloth and porcelain.
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Designs for events and window displays
Since the beginning of her career, the style of this Jersey artist has been constantly changing, moving from white to colour and tackling all kinds of projects, such as special designs for events (menus, invitations and table decorations).
For the window display of the Wijsneus children’s clothing brand’s spring collection, Layla May Arthur created a colourful three-dimensional carousel featuring colourful animals dancing among the children.
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Spring is also the motif behind the House of Rituals window display in Amsterdam, this time through handmade sakura flowers. The idea was to evoke the feeling of a refreshing breeze for passers-by, achieved through the graceful movement of the fabric suspended from the ceiling and the lighting.
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Meanwhile, batik – an age-old textile dyeing technique from Indonesia – formed the inspiration for the paper flowers mounted on a wooden sculpture in the window display of Sari Butik.
Art direction
For some time now, Layla May Arthur has not only worked as a paper artist, but also served as art director for many of her projects, which brings with it great artistic freedom. With the brand Rituals, for example, she took part in their Singles’ Day campaign in China, as well as for the Lunar New Year of the Tiger.
The Florasis Valentine’s Day social media campaign is inspired by an ancient Chinese legend of the forbidden love between Zhinu, an enchanted weaver, and Niulang, a cowherd, who are separated by a river by the Goddess of Heaven and can only meet once a year, on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month, across a bridge of magpies. The ribbon of paper, measuring a total of 2.5 metres long, becomes a symbol of the bridge uniting the lovers.
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Patience as an artform
Whatever the commission – an installation, packaging for a product relaunch, a window display or a sculpture – the one common hallmark of this multi-award winning artist is the precision in details, even in miniatures, and her mastery of light. She has exhibited in countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Italy, Denmark and Croatia. Conversely, Layla MAy Arthur considers herself to be an impatient person in everyday life, but her creations undoubtedly demonstrate infinite patience in the process, from the moment the paper is first cut to when the figures are unfurled as if by magic.
Layla’s Instagram profile: