Saturday 13 February 2010

Chinese New Year of the 'Tyger'

Wishing all of you a very Happy Year of the Tiger and Valentine’s day! Hopefully my tigers will roar this year.

Part of the inspiration for these silk paper cut ‘tygers’ is William Blake’s poem

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright

In the forests of the night,

What immortal hand or eye

Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

My tygers are half hidden in the forest. The gold one is to remind us that this is the year of the metal tiger – this element gives the tiger its sharpness in action and speed of thought. Tigers born in the Metal year like to stand out in a crowd with an inspiring assertiveness and competitive demeanor.

The red Tyger silk paper cutting is made of several tygers stitched together. Each is slightly different so other shapes and lines can be seen. Seen here it hangs in an open space allowing the viewer to look at it from both sides.

Peering through the fretwork foliage allows the viewer to spy on what’s happening on the other side.


1 comment:

Mike Hemsley said...

This is more than an image of a tiger! For he is forged upon your table rock, under your iron blade and elbow hammer, in the heat of reverie and the fire of imagination. And he still flames in the air; he is still flowing, still is not 'framed'. Bachelard says "The entire world and all its living creatures fall under the rubric of metallic species. A being exists in all its power when clothed in metal, when arrayed metallically."