The young artist is raising awareness on birds and their conservation through her paper sculpture exhibitions and workshops.
As published in Nature inFocus on 11 June, 2021. Read the full interview here.
The Scarlet Minivet’s wings are spread wide open, exhibiting striking shades of red and black. Its red tail feathers unfurled like a fan and its talons in position to grab the nearest branch for a smooth landing.
A moment frozen in time, expertly captured by a photographer, one would assume. But no, this gorgeous minivet has instead been brought to life in exhausting detail and at full-scale by a sculptor, using just paper and paint. Meet Niharika Rajput, aka @paperchirrups as she is popularly known to her Instagram followers. This young artist is taking the avian world by storm, creating lifelike paper sculptures of various bird species. From minivets to hummingbirds to kingfishers, a simple scroll through her Instagram account will show you that Rajput can breathe life into any bird in this paper land.
Rajput creates sculptures but what she builds is an intent to conserve and protect the avian residents of our planet. Through her workshops and exhibitions, she creates awareness of the many threats that birds face and she instils a love for a forgotten art – to sit back and observe what surrounds us. In this interview, she talks about her painstaking process of building sculptures, her workshops and how she is getting children to pick up binoculars over/instead of smartphones. Over to paperchirrups.
Head over to Nature inFocus for the compete story.