They can't believe that it just does this.
If you touch it, I mean, it's solid.
And then all of a sudden, it becomes something else, it expands, and it moves, and it gives
you that idea of flexibility, of movement.
And that's what I was trying to achieve when I made this, you know.
And not just the top, it goes all the way up to the bottom.
Somehow I've been able to change the way that we perceive sculpture.
It entertains, it excites.
Hi, my name is Felix Semper, and I am an artist.
My first paper sculpture, I glued solid.
And I said, "How am I gonna prove this is paper?"
Took me about a year to kind of come up with the whole system, and once that happened,
that first sculpture, I took it to New York, and I went to Washington Square Park, and
I just kind of messed around with people.
I just wanted to get people's feedback and reactions.
It started going viral.
Most of my stuff is recycled paper, and I try to do that as much as I can.
So, what I do is, I take sheets of paper, individual sheets of paper, glue them in stacks,
and then I cut them to about the size that I think the sculpture is going to be, and
then I start carving it.
So all this process is eliminating paper.
It's kind of like the original technique of sculpting, but in a different method.
I'm using paper versus, you know, stone or any other medium.
But the fun part about it is that I paint it and give it the original look.
So a lot of times you can't really tell if it's paper or what we're talking about.
I was invited to a dinner, you know, like a wine dinner.
And then I brought this bottle with me.
And you know, everybody brought their own bottle and stuff, you know, so I walk in like
this and they say "Wow, you got a nice French bottle right there."
And I say "Yes, it's Bordeaux, man.
Here let me".
And they go like that, they were freaking out, they went crazy.
Things that inspire me are things that are around me.
I made a Lay's potato chip bags, and then ASAP Rocky bought it, and then, you know,
all these celebrities started talking, so it's just kind of exploded that way.
So it involves painting, it involves sculpture, and it involves performance art, because I
take these pieces and I go into the public.
I open them and show them what it does.
So it becomes a performance art.
This is my new series.
This is actually I finished this not long ago.
This is a flexible wood sculpture.
So I said, "I'm going to make a wood "that I can twist and turn."
And it goes in any direction.
And then, of course he has a hat that is flexible.
I went to a place where it had, like, old junk stuff, and this old TV was just sitting
around there.
When I saw the TV, it was from the 1950s, I said, "I wonder how many people watching
it, "like, what was the most famous show back in the day, "you know, that kids loved?"
So I was, you know, I did some research and it was, you know, Howdy Doody.
So I said, "I bet I can put Howdy Doody "in there in black and white."
And I wanted just kind of bring it you kind of mix all kinds of mediums together, so I
develop a motor, and put it inside, and Howdy Doody comes up, remote control, and, you know,
he expands.
That's what this art does, it engages the viewer, not only to look, but to participate.
You know, it just keeps evolving, and that's the beauty about this art.
I think it expands your mind, because you don't, you know, you're looking at an object
that is solid and all of a sudden this object does something else.
I can do anything, I think, with paper.