THE FIRST CUT

31 International artists share and display their meticulously worked on pieces in large rooms within the Manchester Art Gallery. Hundreds of people visit on consecutive days: cameras snapping, eyes widening, minds filling with awe and inspiration. I go on one of the last days of the exhibition, invited by one of the artists whose work is displayed there: Nicola Daley. Her art uses maps and book pages to create feathers, and leaves of trees. It may look simple compared to all the rest of the creations displayed, but the ideas behind her work are deep and complex. My camera dies five minutes of arriving [after taking only the two photos pictured] so I only have my eyes to see and my memory to store the images surrounding me. However, this gives me more chance to grasp the meaning behind each art piece; whereas if I had had my camera, I would have looked, taken a photo, and walked on. There is an extremely wide range of things to see at the exhibition – but what astounds me is that they are all the same technique: paper cutting in books: magazines, leaves, maps, large sheets of paper, and money. There is a motorbike made entirely out of paper and an amazingly detailed construction made of hundreds and hundreds of sheets of white, blank paper.

I honestly couldn't dislike anything I saw because each piece was so varied that there was something for everyone’s tastes – and I personally could appreciate it all because having tried paper cutting before, I knew how difficult a technique it was to master. One of my favourite creations however was a large sheet of black paper cut into, to make small squares depicting different scenes of people’s everyday activities in a city. I thought it was very cleverly portrayed and the detail within it was breathtaking. During my visit I also saw a short video of some of the artists working on the pieces that were now being displayed in the exhibition halls, and talking about the concept behind them which I found fascinating. One of the art pieces I had seen had had to be cut up to be able to even fit into the gallery, and had then been carefully and painstakingly stuck back together once inside. Leaving the exhibition later on, I realized how much drive viewing all this work had given me to try my own – and a few weeks later, I had bought my first ever paper cutting knife.