With Artist Yuken Teruya Trees Come From Paper, Not The Other Way Around.

An artist with a precise and delicate hand, Yuken Teruya's work includes several different series in which tiny and detailed trees are cut from books, toilet paper rolls and disposable bags.

In each bag and roll, the shape of a tree is created without adding or removing anything, just by cutting out and folding the paper from the bag itself. Teruya’s works explore issues such as the growing consumerism of contemporary society, depleting natural resources and other problems associated with globalism, including the threat it poses to localized cultural traditions and identities.

In his Notice – Forest Series, artist Yuken Teruya assembles small delicate trees from the cut out part of disposable bags. Then, he stands each tree in the same bag that it came from.



above: Notice-Forest (Murata & Friends shot), Paper Bag,
Glue 9.1/8” x 3.3/8” x 15.3/4”, 23 cm x 8cm x 40cm
2007, Photo Yuken Teruya


above: Notice- Forest (McDonald’s paper bag), Paper Bag, Glue
6”x 3.1/2” x11”, 18 cm x 8cm x 28cm
2005, Photo Yuken Teruya


above: Notice-Forest (Moma), Moma Paper Bag, Glue
8.1/4” x 4.1/3” x 13.3/8”, 21cm x 12cm x 34 cm
2006, Photo Yuken Teruya


above: Notice- Forest, Paper Bag, Glue
7.1/8” x 3.3/8” x 11”, 18 cm x 8cm x 28cm
2005, Photo Yuken Teruya


above: Notice – Forest exhibition shot, 7 paper bags from different business fields
Glue and bags, dimensions vary, 2005

For his Corner Forest and Rain Forest projects, he cut trees from toilet paper rolls creating both positive and negative images that are equally impressive.

above: Corner Forest, Toilet Paper Rolls, 2006


above: Rain Forest ( Murata & Friends Gallery shot ), Toilet Paper Rolls, 2007

For his Giving Tree Project, Yuken cut and created a tree from the pages of Shel Silverstein's wonderful children's book, The Giving Tree:



above: Giving Tree Project, The Giving Tree Book
7. 7/8” x 11.7/8” x 7. 7/8”, 20cm x 30 cm x 20 cm, 2007

About the artist:

Born in Okinawa, Japan in 1973, he received his MFA from the school of Visual Arts, New York in 2001. In 2007, he had a solo exhibition at The Asia Society in New York. His work was included in Greater New York 2005 at P.S.1 Contemporary art Center and was featured in the Yokohama International Triennial. Recent exhibitions include the Kunstwerein Wiesbaden in Germany; Free Fish at Asia Society in New York as well as various gallery exhibitions in the United States, Europe and Japan. In 2007, his work was featured in Shapes of Space, an exhibition at Guggenheim Museum New York. This fall, his work will be included in “Okinawa” at The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Japan.

See all of his work here.

If cut paper art interests you, be sure to see these three artists:


above: the amazing cut paper work of Peter Callesen


above: Helen Musselwhite's cut paper art and illustration


above: Yulia Brodskaya's Paper Graphics