Interview: Yulia Brodskaya

The young Russian paper artist is exhibiting her works for the very first time

In contrast to her world of twirling technicoloured paper dreamscapes, Russian-born Yulia Brodskaya is remarkably low-key and soft-spoken. The young London-based artist greets us and speaks shyly of her creations, with the air of a sensitive schoolgirl being paraded in front of an audience by proud parents. Her nervousness is understandable – despite years of being lauded in magazines and newspapers around the world (my first encounter with Brodskaya’s work was via her now iconic cover image for The Guardian's Observer magazine in the UK), this presentation in Harbour City’s LCX is Brodskaya’s first-ever exhibition. And it’s a long way from the comforts of home.

The show, which runs until the end of the month, features a specially commissioned, metres-long paper artwork depicting an explosion of colourful poppies, featuring the technique Brodskaya is known for – paper quilling. “It’s actually quite an old technique,” she explains. One of the oldest samples is dated between the 18th and 19th centuries, and essentially involves rolling and curling strips of paper to fashion shapes and layers.

Brodskaya, who started out as a graphic designer and illustrator, is entirely self-taught in the art of quilling. “I didn’t know there were tools you could use,” she laughs. “I just took a cocktail straw and a little cocktail stick, I cut some paper strips and started to ‘draw’. I’m still using the same tools today.” She shows us, almost apologetically, the plastic turquoise curly straw and toothpick she uses for every single illustration she creates.

And that’s the beauty of Brodskaya’s work – she creates breathtaking pieces, mesmerising in their detail and intricacy, through no sleight of hand. There’s no trickery involved, just a few basic supermarket purchases (including a primary school-style bottle of PVC glue). Perhaps this goes some way to explain some of her shyness. “The technique is really simple,” she emphasises several times. “It’s something anyone could do.” But then she grins. “The only challenge is that it’s so time consuming. You can really only enjoy it if you love what you do – otherwise, it’s just plain torture.”

In the video above, Brodskaya talks to us about her first time in Hong Kong, and how it is working on a scale much larger than anything she has ever done before.

LCX x Yulia Brodskaya
Date: April 12 to May 31, 2013
Time: 10am to 10pm daily
Venue: LCX, Ocean Terminal, Harbour City, Tsim Sha Tsui

Videography by Tyrone Wu