The Sorcerer

Valentine Louafi

Defined as a paper lace-maker, Valentine Louafi made papercutting – an ode to minimalism that requires steadiness, patience and an ounce of perfectionnism, as “painting” with a blade doesn’t give room to any mistakes – her speciality. Her papercuttings offer a surgical precision combined with intricate and stunningly expressive portraits.

“My work has always been drawn to the representation of silhouette due to its delicate sharpness. Its complex simplicity and strong contrasted nature evokes endless depth and meaning. It’s an art of balance and an art of emptiness. To reveal the subject, you need to remove material. To build with the void. To build with the empty space. Void is necessary, in all existing things. From atomic scale to Universe scale. Negative needs positive, light needs shadow. THE CREATIVE PROCESS IS A METAPHOR OF THE CREATION AND ESSENCE OF LIFE ITSELF. My laser artworks are based on my own paper cut originals that I manipulated digitally. I look for depth, creating some sort of spinning light portals that absorb you, playing with lights and shadows to reveal the subject. Those are artworks constantly change depending of the point of view and lighting. You never see the same thing.”