Novel Meanings: Art by Emma Lehto
Collage 1: Helmut Newton's Illustrated: No. 1, cut paper (collage)
Emma Lehto is a typographical artist based in Vancouver, BC. Emma often creates her works using a reductive process, cutting away portions of ubiquitous found texts to create images with novel meanings.
Rejected: Playgirl Magazine #2 (detail), cut paper, paper sculpture
I’m enjoying Emma’s works in which her exacto-knife cuts are guided by the shapes of human figures, on the covers and pages of magazines and art books. Removing material by following the outline of the original image creates a cut piece that suggests the original figure, while forming a totally new object. By altering the pattern and direction of her cuts within the shapes, Emma creates interesting patterns that speak to an entirely new image, becoming a sort of concrete poetry.
The front page of Emma's art website, www.emmalehto.ca
In her Positive Space series Emma cuts entire figures – and only figures – out of photographic spreads in fashion magazines. The resulting images are an interesting exercise in negative space. Though the figures have been removed from the photo frame, the colorful, contoured voids that they leave behind seem packed with even more visual information.
