Cut Paper Relief Sculpture is a Brilliant Way to Illustrate the Diversity of a Coral Reef

All pho­tog­ra­phy by Pierre Chi­voret de La Photographerie

Illus­tra­tor Mlle Hipoly­te is no stranger to Brown Paper Bag. For the past few years, I’ve fea­tured her intri­cate cut paper art and noticed this great pro­gres­sion in her work. She start­ed by mak­ing col­or­ful ani­mal masks and tran­si­tioned to mur­al-sized cre­ations that incor­po­rat­ed her crea­tures among vibrant set­tings. Her lat­est piece leans fur­ther into the land­scape. Called Coral­i­um, it fea­tures a hand­made coral reef—approximately 6.5 feet long by 3 feet tall—that rep­re­sents an array of col­ors and tex­tures that are all made using paper. Tech­niques includ­ing scor­ing, lay­er­ing, and twist­ing cre­ate the appear­ance of dif­fer­ent coral.

Coral­i­um is a cut paper sculp­ture that is best viewed in detail shots. Some of its parts, like the small buds, don’t look like paper at all—and that’s the beau­ty of it.