Paperboyo. Cut, paste

Erarta Museum presents an exhibition by British photographer Paperboyo, transforming urban spaces with minimalist paper silhouettes.

As a child, Rich McCore, now known as Paperboyo, armed himself with scissors and began his first experiments with materials at hand. He used paper and cardboard, which were abundant in the household, in contrast to the more expensive paints and canvases. At school and college, simple crafting exercises have evolved into creating equally simple stop motion videos.

At the beginning of his career, McCore wandered the streets of London for days in search of interesting shots. A rather widespread form of leisure among urban youth, playful in nature, and made a young man an artist. Paperboyo's early work, in which he draws on popular postcard views, consisted of sketches of landmarks set against respective landscapes, creating a comic effect: the image grabbed attention, absorbing the famous location. After practicing with the drawings, Rich spontaneously discovered a new format: black minimalist silhouettes, reminiscent of graffiti created using stencils, complemented the picture familiar to the viewer in an unexpected and witty way. One of the first works in this style was a photograph of Big Ben in the form of a wristwatch.

The special charm of the site-specific objects with which McCore inhabits the sky above the metropolitan areas lies in their man-madeness. His photo manipulation is analog augmented reality. Wielding a scalpel at his desk, the artist creates something like a global street art, "paper street art" - in this term there is an analogy with paper architecture or architectural fantasies. Peering into modern cities, Paperboyo draws on the street photography tradition and silhouette prevalent in the first quarter of the 19th century. There is also something in this from archaic animation with the imposition of celluloid films on a painted or photographic background. The images of Paperboyo themselves refer to popular culture and popular cartoons. Peering into the urban space, the artist sees in it either a funny face or a replicated portrait of the famous actor. Reality turns into a cartoon: the photographer makes visible the aggressive manifestations of mass culture that haunt us, whether it be endless photographs of Audrey Hepburn and Clint Eastwood or numerous images of dragons and cute cats. Like predators, they hunt for our attention. You can meet these people from the subconscious in the most unexpected places - show the work of Paperboyo.