Lifelike flowers made out of paper turn designer's NY studio into an indoor garden
As designer Sourabh Gupta pushes aside a curtain in an East Harlem apartment, lifelike paper flowers in hues of violets, pinks and reds greet the eye in his 12 foot by 12 foot studio, where he also sleeps.
Foxgloves, lady's slippers and daisies sway in a summer breeze in Gupta's paper flower garden as the sound of an ambulance goes by, a reminder of the city.
Gupta learned not to waste anything growing up.
"In Jammu and Kashmir, you have three department stores, two grocery stores and a hardware store," he said. "So that's what you have in your town. So if you want to make something, you have to learn how to create what you have."
Gupta studied to be an architect in India before going to school at Parsons School of Design in New York, but dropped out after a year. His mentor took him to a showcase of Japanese designer Rei Kawakubo's gowns at the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2017 and Gupta was struck by the breathtaking, floral dresses. He remembered how he used to fashion paper flowers out of yellow receipts as a child back in India and picked up his hobby again.
Gupta posted his creations on Instagram, which caught the attention of various designers, one of them being Tory Burch. Gupta was commissioned to create 300 paper daisies and hand sew them onto the fashion designer's gown for the Met gala in May. Individual petals were painstakingly glued onto each floret.
The 29-year-old artist and designer uses food coloring or water color to paint details on the delicate works of art.
"I think the urge in me to create is so much there, like if the studio was not there, I could just take a piece of paper and scissors and I can start making something," he said. "So that's how I started making paper flowers. And then I think I kind of started to reconnect with that idea that I had started as a kid but never really cared for it. And now I was using the same material, but the same idea, but in a very different way. And I knew now like I can give you a paper flower and I might be able to see a smile on your face."
Gupta got serious about his paper flowers only eight months ago and moved to his apartment four or five months ago. And the flowers filling up his studio are only a month old. Paper wildflowers he was working on went to a show at the Bolton Historical Museum.
When asked if paper flowers were the last stop on his artistic journey, Gupta replied: "It's a good resting spot. It's like, where I'm enjoying my hotel stay for five days and I'm exploring the landscape, but something is happening which is bigger -- my ability to understand using the material, my ability to create, because every time I'm creating one flower, I'm learning two more skills."
(Production: Hussein Al Waaile / Roselle Chen)
