Warren King’s cardboard sculptures are the result of a lot of trial and error. A self-taught artist, until fairly recently King has worked in a different field altogether – data mining and analysis. He actually discovered a passion for sculpting while taking a well needed break from software startups.
But incredibly enough, though he’s new to the art scene, King’s work is anything but amateure. “I’ve only been doing this for about five years, so the learning curve has been steep,” he remarked in an interview with Embodied Magazine. “There’s a lot of trial and error.”
According to King, one of the benefits of using cardboard is that it’s relatively easy to try things out and experiment with it. “If it doesn’t work out, I can just cut away whole sections and try something new,” her explains. “I’m still learning with each new piece, but now that I have some proficiency with making basic shapes, I’ve started to experiment with other techniques, like coloring with inks.”
In one of his more incredible series, King created cardboard figures inspired by the villagers of his grandparents’ hometown in China. According to King, this series also ties to the paper art practice in China. “There’s a long tradition of Chinese cut-paper art that I’m drawing from,” he notes, “and it gives me another vehicle to further the storytelling.”
“With every medium, but maybe especially so with cardboard, there’s a range of detail that can be used,” adds King. “More detail is not necessarily better, and accuracy is not what I go for.” Here are some of his more striking pieces:
