London-based artist Matthew Picton, whose work we recently spotted over at Faith is Torment, creates beautiful paper sculptures of cities from New York to Tehran. As his website suggests, he is engaged with “humanising the city by deconstructing the clean, uncompromising aesthetic of the cartographic city plan and imbuing it with the unique history and culture of each place.” Indeed, Picton’s sculptures are more than just accomplished papercraft. The materials he chooses have resonance with the city in question, as in Venice, which is constructed from excerpts of Thomas Mann’s Death in Venice, written after his visit to the city in 1911, as well as segments of the musical score by Benjamin Britten for the operatic interpretation of Mann’s novel, and the paper was “partially soaked in water and mud dredged from the lagoon surrounding Venice.” In this way the representation of the city becomes a part of the city, at least conceptually. After the jump, check out a few of our favorites of Picton’s pieces, and then be sure to head over to his website to check out more of his work.
Venice. Image Credit: Matthew Picton
San Francisco. Image Credit: Matthew Picton
Dallas. Image Credit: Matthew Picton
Las Vegas. Image Credit: Matthew Picton
Jerusalem. Image Credit: Matthew Picton
Mexico City. Image Credit: Matthew Picton
Tehran. Image Credit: Matthew Picton
Dresden. Image Credit: Matthew Picton
Portland. Image Credit: Matthew Picton
Lower Manhattan. Image Credit: Matthew Picton