ABOUT REUT
I have always been interested in how worlds are built.
I studied film and specialized in animation, where I became fascinated by the way an image comes together through separate layers - background, movement, character and detail.
Years later, when I began working with Japanese patterned papers, I realized I was building images in much the same way. Only now, instead of building a world frame by frame, I was building it piece by piece.
It started with a few sheets of paper.
I was about ten years old when a friend returned from living abroad and gave me a small collection of Japanese origami papers.
I remember being completely fascinated by them. The colors, patterns and extraordinary detail made them feel almost too beautiful to use.
So I didn't.
I kept them.
Years later, when I began experimenting with collage, I returned to those same papers. What began as a childhood fascination gradually became the material through which I found my own visual language.
A language already there.
Each sheet of Chiyogami already carries its own visual language - pattern, movement, rhythm and history.
I wait for the moment when the separate pieces of paper begin to connect and speak to one another.
Then I listen to the story that starts to emerge, and notice where it resonates in me - in my body, my emotions, somewhere deeper.
I follow that resonance as I continue to cut, layer and build the world of the work.
That world does not always need to make sense.