folk art

Chinese folk papercuts are usually treated as anonymous art, differentiated only by local styles. More recently some scholars have argued that it is necessary to study the artists who make the papercuts to really understand regional styles and the subject matter. Additionally, many of the things portrayed in papercuts are traditional objects no longer commonly used today but remembered through paper art. The study of these papercuts may be able to tell us something about local minority art and culture in China.

In 2001, British artist Jeremy Deller received a residency from the CCAC Wattis Institute in San Francisco. He applied his honorarium toward a used Jeep and five acres of land in the Mojave Desert for $2000, thereby staking his own claim upon the Golden State. His fellowship resulted in an unorthodox but compelling guidebook tracing California’s history from the 19th century mining boom to the post-dot-com recession, as found along its dusty highways and in its roadside museums.