A craft cut out for the artist

I first met Wang Fangting, better known as Liaoliao, at a sci-fi conference in Shanghai two years ago. She was a guest speaker, who, when stepping on the stage, apologized that she was so nervous that she had forgotten all she had prepared about her paper-cuttings, which seemed "remote from sci-fi or fantasy".

About 10 minutes later, completely captivated by her "wonderland" shown in the presentation, I rushed to her seat, finding that she already started working on a piece of paper with scissors, a way she had practiced for years to vent negative emotions.

The next time when I saw that paper-cut piece — a two-legged star with a warm smile holding a smaller star before its chest — was at her debut exhibition, My Dear, Your Blossoms Are Scissor-Born in a village in Beijing's Changping district in early May.

She greeted me at Lodge Kai ETA, an art gallery with a cafe where a part of the exhibits was presented. As she showed me around the space, her 9-year-old son came running to her from time to time, very much attached to his mother.

The exhibits that showcased her last 17-year efforts were displayed in two spaces. One was the dimly lit gallery and another a bright courtyard.

"In this gallery, it's like back in my early days, when I felt enclosed and growing in the soil, painfully and with confusion. Here, I want to show that personal growing process," said the 41-year-old artist.

"Then, I became a mother. I had to get out of the soil, connecting with the world, which actually started from my paper-cut illustrations for the book Yuefu. Those works are shown in the bright courtyard."

At the gallery, the first interactive space was called Paper Shredder of Bad Moods. Visitors could write down or draw on paper whatever troubles them. Then taking the paper and a flashlight, one would walk through the entrance filled with 2-meter-long hanging thorns and snakes made of felt, seeing shadows of those thorns either growing like giants or shrinking on the walls.

Despite challenges from difficult people and events, there is always light filtering in, Liaoliao explained.

"And may we bravely find a path through the thorns that we can stick to."

After passing through the thorns and snakes, one would come to a shredder.

"Scissors and knives have played a significant role to vent my emotions. You can write down or draw anything unhappy or sad, and throw it into the shredder to turn it into pieces of paper," she said.

After the exhibition, Liaoliao will reshape the paper shreds into a sculpture.

She then led me into a dark room. She clicked on a button and suddenly the room became a world of fantasy. Groups of small paper-cut figures stood hand in hand on a big table. Most of the figures were white, and some were vivid red, blue and yellow. Varying in forms — ghost, dinosaur, radish, rabbit, or skeleton — they appeared lost, sad, angry, curious or happy.

In the middle of the table was an elliptical trail. Two closely set lighting devices were moving on the trail. Each lighting device had two opposite spotlights so that as they traveled, the shadows of the figures grew or shrunk as if coming to life, especially accompanied by bird chirping sounds.

I was amazed just like two years ago.