For the final week of June 2013 the IEA welcomed Colette Fu of Philadelphia, PA as our artist in residence. Colette is most known for her pop-up book work, combining her photography with paper manipulation to make her images literally and figuratively jump out of the pages of the books she produces. Much of her imagery comes from her visits to communities in China, the peoples there, and their culture and customs.

During her residency, Colette focused on producing the materials to make a larger sized book using imagery of the Axi Fire Festival of the Yi people in Yunnan, China. This is part of a larger series titled “We are Tiger Dragon People 我們是虎”. The images for this book were printed on the Epson large-format printers and the Epilog laser cutter was used to cut some of the forms for constructing the book out. Additionally, the covers were etched and cut out of quarter-inch oak plywood sheets with this laser cutter.

Below are some images of Colette’s work. First are some process shots, including a photo of the book in process of being assembled. The final three are the book in its completed state: