Garish, disposable fast food bags aren’t exactly an obvious art medium, but once artist Yuken Teruya works his magic on them, they’re transformed into stunning, delicate paper forests that capture the vitality of live trees in a series entitled Notice-Forest.

 

Teruya cuts one side of the disposable paper bags and then uses tiny scissors to shape the cut-out part into a tree, folding it down so that, when you look inside the bag, it creates a diorama. The colors on the exterior of the bag pop against the blank interior, and the light that shines inside allows the paper tree to cast the same sort of dappled shadows that a real tree would.

 

 

The artist says that he sees the inside of the bag as a perfect place to resurrect the original qualities and spirit of an authentic tree, making it appear as if the tree is situated in the middle of a vivid forest.

 

“A friend of mine once said that if you make someone smile, they open up to you and communication inevitably commences,” Teruya told Asian Art Newspaper. “That is what I try to do. I base the specific aesthetic decision upon my instincts as and when something excites me.”

 

 

“When people become attracted to my work and observe it closely, they start extracting messages from it.Whenever art is made from everyday objects the viewer brings the experience into their own private sphere and upon using the same material, they will view it from a renewed perspective.”