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ted.com

26

Oct

2009

Art of the Toilet Paper Roll

By Maria Popova

Simplicity and complexity, human emotion, and the intersection of craft and storytelling.

While Charmin gets busy staffing NYC bathrooms with bloggers this holiday season, we thought we’d focus on the less commercial, more artistic side of the backbone of this whole toilet paper thing: The toilet paper roll. Here are three artists who have turned the inglorious brown tossaway into beautiful and inspired design goodness.

JUNIOR FRITZ JACQUET

French artist Junior Fritz Jacquet has been fascinated by paper since a very young age. Among various other paper and cardboard creations, he transforms plain toilet paper rolls into remarkable miniature masks. His technique is inspired by origami, in that it uses a single piece and folds it into a shape, but has a unique smoothness that deviates from the sharpness and jagged edges of origami, creating shapes that are astonishingly human.

The masks are sculpted by hand, then coated with shellac and different pigments. A testament to the power of taking something incredibly simple and transforming it into something impressively expressive, each piece exudes a complexity of human emotion conveyed in just a few brilliantly orchestrated folds.

ANASTASSIA ELIAS

French artist Anastassia Elias is a master of collage. But her Paper Cuts series is something else entirely.

Like a pop-up book that unfolds inside a toilet paper roll, Elias’ work is a beautiful intersection of art, craft and modern storytelling.

YUKEN TERUYA

Japanese artist Yuken Teruya, whom you may recall from our paper art omnibus feature, takes everyday objects and transforms them into works of art. His toilet paper roll mini-sculptures are created just by cutting silhouettes into the paper and folding them out, adding and subtracting nothing.

Teruya’s work is as much an innovation in artistic technique as it is a conceptual criticism of contemporary culture’s preoccupation with adding more and more to our lives while taking more and more from nature — an ode to the brilliance and charm of simplicity.

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This entry was posted on Monday, October 26th, 2009 at 7:41 am in art, design and was tagged , , .

42 Responses

  1. Unique and Definitely Impressive: “The Art of the Toilet Paper Roll” http://bit.ly/3Jvb1G

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    benasmith on October 26th, 2009 at 8:09 am

  2. Awesome toilet paper roll art over on Brain Pickings: http://is.gd/4CnIY

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    joelkelly on October 26th, 2009 at 8:16 am

  3. “The art of the toilet paper roll” from @brainpicker highlights 3 artists using, err, toilet paper rolls http://tr.im/D5MI

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    jonstutfield on October 26th, 2009 at 9:12 am

  4. Art of the Toilet Paper Roll – 3 creators who take this inglorious throwaway & transform it into art http://su.pr/3gv5WX

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    brainpicker on October 26th, 2009 at 10:08 am

  5. RT @brainpicker Art of the Toilet Paper Roll – 3 creators who take this inglorious throwaway & transform it into art http://su.pr/3gv5WX

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    we_wwwatch on October 26th, 2009 at 10:09 am

  6. Art of the Toilet Paper Roll – 3 creators who take this inglorious throwaway & transform it into art http://su.pr/3gv5WX (via @brainpicker)

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    justmario on October 26th, 2009 at 10:11 am

  7. RT @brainpicker: Art of the Toilet Paper Roll – 3 creators who take this inglorious throwaway & transform it into art http://su.pr/3gv5WX

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    MosesHawk on October 26th, 2009 at 10:11 am

  8. nice RT @brainpicker Art of the [TP] Roll – 3 creators who take this inglorious throwaway & transform it into art http://su.pr/3gv5WX

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    sweeneysgrocery on October 26th, 2009 at 10:13 am

  9. RT @we_wwwatch RT @brainpicker Art of the Toilet Paper Roll http://su.pr/3gv5WX

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    brigettebrugada on October 26th, 2009 at 10:14 am

  10. RT @we_wwwatch @brainpicker Art of Toilet Paper Roll – 3 creators take this inglorious throwaway & transform into art http://su.pr/3gv5WX

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    olmocs on October 26th, 2009 at 10:29 am

  11. Hvordan man kan lege med en dagligdags genstand og få kunst ud af det: http://bit.ly/ncwX3

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    legensby on October 26th, 2009 at 10:32 am

  12. RT @brainpicker Art of Toilet Paper Roll – 3 creators take this inglorious throwaway & transform into art http://su.pr/3gv5WX

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    ToiletPaperKing on October 26th, 2009 at 10:36 am

  13. RT @brainpicker Art of the Toilet Paper Roll – 3 creators who take this inglorious throwaway & transform it into art http://su.pr/3gv5WX

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    sofiatessa on October 26th, 2009 at 10:39 am

  14. The Art of the Toilet Paper Roll | Brain Pickings http://tr.im/D74R wonderful

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    aprilmains on October 26th, 2009 at 12:25 pm

  15. RT @brainpicker: Art of the Toilet Paper Roll – 3 creators who take this inglorious throwaway & transform it into art http://su.pr/3gv5WX

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    kimplification on October 26th, 2009 at 12:27 pm

  16. The Art of the Toilet Paper Roll – http://tinyurl.com/yfkerxn

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    dsaportfolio on October 26th, 2009 at 3:34 pm

  17. RT @brainpicker: Art of the Toilet Paper Roll – 3 creators who take this inglorious throwaway & transform it into art – http://su.pr/3gv5WX

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    ArtHealsNetwork on October 26th, 2009 at 7:28 pm

  18. Toilet Paper Roll Art. This is the shit! http://bit.ly/1yIG2E

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    LenKendall on October 26th, 2009 at 8:29 pm

  19. @kiwicuties check this out http://bit.ly/1yIG2E fanfuckingtastic!

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    anniemmm on October 26th, 2009 at 8:38 pm

  20. Awesome RT @LenKendall: Toilet Paper Roll Art. This is the shit! http://bit.ly/1yIG2E

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    igzelesko on October 26th, 2009 at 9:08 pm

  21. Beautiful toilet paper roll art. http://bit.ly/1yIG2E

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    BrenniFresh on October 26th, 2009 at 11:18 pm

  22. Art of the Toilet Paper Roll – http://shar.es/aouTO

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    ootb1234 on October 27th, 2009 at 5:01 am

  23. toilet paper roll art: http://bit.ly/3Lt61b

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    bescka on October 27th, 2009 at 9:54 am

  24. Art of the Toilet Paper Roll…

    How 3 designers are taking the ordinary cardboard throwaway and transforming it into inspired works of art….

    CSS Brigit | Art of the Toilet Paper Roll on October 27th, 2009 at 10:36 am

  25. Cool things to do with your toilet paper roll http://bit.ly/14lJEm

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    condofire on October 27th, 2009 at 1:04 pm

  26. My art is often only worthy of the toilet. Despite using toilet rolls, this art certainly isn’t http://bit.ly/1yIG2E

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    Joelwillans on October 27th, 2009 at 6:16 pm

  27. Filed under ‘just as cool as the styrofoam cup thing’: Art of the Toilet Paper Roll http://bit.ly/QkvDq

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    paradisetossed on October 28th, 2009 at 12:12 am

  28. Joder, las cosas que se les ocurren a algunos cuando se termina el papel higiénico. http://j.mp/GAtbP

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    sieyin on October 28th, 2009 at 6:14 am

  29. Toilet Paper Roll Art http://bit.ly/2zDSyW

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    designsojourn on October 28th, 2009 at 8:37 am

  30. That’s awesome!!! @designsojourn Toilet Paper Roll Art http://bit.ly/2zDSyW

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    Adriana_q on October 28th, 2009 at 8:52 am

  31. That’s awesome!!! RT @designsojourn Toilet Paper Roll Art http://bit.ly/2zDSyW

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    Adriana_q on October 28th, 2009 at 8:52 am

  32. Don’t Toss that Roll Yet… Toilet Paper Roll Art http://bit.ly/2zDSyW (via @designsojourn)

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    SolidSmack on October 28th, 2009 at 8:53 am

  33. Art of the Toilet Paper Roll: http://bit.ly/1ynpWf

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    mochipark on October 29th, 2009 at 12:57 am

  34. [...] 29, 2009 via [...]

  35. Art of the Toilet Paper Roll http://bit.ly/3Jvwgo (via feedly)

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    hvaudaux on October 29th, 2009 at 9:06 am

  36. Inglorious became beautiful : http://bit.ly/437iyd “art of the toilette paper roll” :P

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    Watsdesign on October 29th, 2009 at 4:13 pm

  37. RT @mochipark: “Art of the Toilet Paper Roll: http://bit.ly/1ynpWf”;
    Beautiful and crafty. Faces and pop-up books and tree silhouettes oh my!

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    DarksideHalo on October 30th, 2009 at 3:17 am

  38. The Art of the Toilet Paper Roll http://ff.im/-aTdFw

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    mustafaduran on November 2nd, 2009 at 5:31 pm

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    Skaitom #21 | Vavavyva.com & Nuodas.lt on November 3rd, 2009 at 3:55 pm

  40. Lovely art from the humble toilet paper roll http://bit.ly/3g1qZ1

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    thinkonline on November 8th, 2009 at 10:43 pm

  41. [twitter] The Art of the Toilet Paper Roll | Brain Pickings http://bit.ly/4nDMw7

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    yamasas on November 13th, 2009 at 5:37 am

  42. [...] The Art of the Toilet Paper Roll from brainpickings.org [...]

    James Berghout » Blog Archive » Day 40 – Depressed on November 22nd, 2009 at 3:50 pm

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