Worlds That Fold Away: Paper Artistry

By Angela McCormack / February 3rd, 2012 in Talks / Sydney / 354 views

It’s so easy for us to live in a paperless world nowadays; there’s a device for every kind of papery function you might need—your calendar, books, magazines, mail and bills have been floating about cyberspace, rather than your desk, for a while now. Heck, even some restaurants have started to bring their menus out on iPads. Talented graphic designer/paper engineer Benja Harney, a Sydney local, thrives on a medium that increasingly is being left behind: that rich smelling, smooth, scrunch-worthy thing called paper.

Made as part of the inspiring Slashies series where creatives expose their two sides and explore their passions outside of their 9-5 grind, Harney’s story is extremely impressionable as he talks us through his passion for paper. For six years Harney spent his weekdays designing layouts for The Sunday Telegraph and spent every spare moment on his fragile endeavours with his freelance work at self-started company Paperform. Since then he’s done some incredible work, all with folding, cutting and gluing coloured sheets together: Kylie Minogue’s exclusive pop-up book is staggering; he’s created magazine covers, fantastic shop window displays and all manner of sculptures made entirely from paper, something Harney believes we’ve come to see as “forgotten”. Now Harney has thrown in the towel at his desk job and is working at Paperform full time, ready to create fine and flimsy “worlds that fold away.”