Hasta La Ideas

For his new Outline Editions show, illustrator Noma Bar has been going die-cut crazy, feeding his enormous dog shaped, electric-powered die-cutting machine (which we blogged about last week) all kinds of material to die cut, from hand made paper through to old album covers, rubber flooring, carpet, ply wood and anything else he can think of. The results lend his work a new dimension and a whole lot of colour…

By using different materials, some textured, some patterned, in a variety of colours, Bar’s work takes on completely new appearances. Not only does the viewer have to work out what’s going on with the positive and negative space in each work, but also now there’s the extra dimension of trying to work out what materials have been used. Wood ply sits next to paper, plain paper is juxtaposed with patterned material, and smooth surfaces are paired with rough.

“Normally I’m a one colour person because I don’t really need to use colour combinations in my work,” explains Bar, “it’s about light and dark. Now I can swap what would normally be white [space] in my work with something else and this is how this project started to evolve. Actually, I’ve started to collect and use things I would never previously have considered using in my work, things I hate, like for example, flower-covered carpet  – just to surprise myself with new materials. It’s almost as if as soon as I punch [cut] the material, it becomes mine. It’s a little bit like a dog pissing on the corner – you know, I can take a David Bowie sleeve and cut it and suddenly it becomes mine and there’s something really exciting about that.”

The work hanging on the walls will be sold as seen during the show’s run, with prices of each work being dependent on the materials used. As artworks leaves, so new work will fill the gaps as throughout the show Bar will continue creating new variations of his work using the materials and the die-cutting machine in the gallery.

As part of next week’s London Design Festival, Bar is hosting live drawing and also die cutting workshops on Saturdays September 17 and 24, from 2pm to 5pm. Attendees of the free workshops will be able to choose from a wide range of coloured papers and other materials to create their own unique Noma Bar artwork of choice using the die-cutting dog machine. Details at londondesignfestival.com

Cut It Out by Noma bar runs until October 1 at Outline Editions, 94 Berwick Street, London W1

outline-editions.co.uk