Of the 187 billion pounds of paper produced on our planet every year, how many are used this creatively? A distinctly modern variant of classic origami art, these three-dimensional works rise up from the page as if the paper were coming alive – animated shapes, scenes and figures carved crisply from generic white paper stock.

The sheets themselves are technically blank (canvasses, if you will) from which Peter Callesen cuts his storybook forms, bent upward and back in on one another – both liberated but also still tied to the page from whence they came.

Paper-making was once itself a fine artisan craft, but in the age of mass-production it has become a standardized and recognizable object the world over. The most universal, generic and familiar paper was intentionally chosen by the artist as something that people can relate to – the ordinary made unique and unusual.

While his small-scale works may be the most widely known, Callesen has also created many framed pieces based on similar techniques as well as large installation artworks likewise revolving around paper cut, bent, glued and reshaped into forms both familiar and fascinating.