Brussels-based artist Tom Gallant’s second exhibition of kirigami pieces reveals not only a vast improvement in his paper-cutting skills—the simple flowers and birds of his last show are nowhere to be found here—but also a broadening of his interests. Meticulously crafted from the pages of porn magazines (as was his earlier work), these new pieces draw inspiration from nineteenth-century British designer/poet/idealist William Morris—indeed, some are conscious imitations of Morris designs. While the obsessive nature of his craft is intended to reflect the popular fixation on pornography, the tawdriness of the subject remains deliciously hidden beneath the multiple layers of intricately patterned paper. A strategically preserved nipple peeks out here (Chrysanthemum, 2005) or the provocative murkiness of two naked women (Wild Tulip, 2005) is discernible there, but the slightly dirty feeling is literally papered over by the beauty of Morris’s intertwining florals. Persian Carpet (After Morris), 2005, is a pitch-perfect rendition incorporating standard Morris motifs into a Persian-inspired, Arts-and-Crafts-style rug fringed with text from an accompanying article from the magazine used. Morris, of course, was famous for saying, “Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.” While the nineteenth-century master may have doubted the usefulness of Gallant’s images, he would have no quarrel with their beauty.
