Origami Sightings - Art

Compiled by Janet Hamilton

In the Forbes Museum on 12th St. in New York City hangs a very old painting showing children a group of children playing soldier, with one of them  wearing a newspaper hat.

A Picasso painting shown at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, included an origami crane. It was either from Picasso's "blue" or "cubist" period.

There is a government building in Quebec city that has a series of three sculptures of a cat in the process of jumping up onto a wall, that are based upon origami cat forms.

The Museo de Miniaturas in Harma on the island of Lanzarote (one of the Canary Islands, Spain) was a very little origami-piece, a pajarita.

In the book "The Basque History of the World" by Mark Kurlansky, there is a portrait by Ignacio Zuloaga y Zamora of Spanish poet and philosopher Miguel de Unamuno. Unamuno is sitting at his desk, upon which sit two origami birds. According to the credits, the original painting belongs to The Hispanic Society of America, in New York. The painting is also reproduced in black and white in "The Art of Origami" by Samuel Randlett (1961).  .A second similar painting by Zuloaga depicts Unamuno with a single bird.

The Tretiakovskaya gallery in Moscow had a picture by P. Petrov called "The boy with the book" (1855). Near the boy there are some origami models.

"The Merrymakers" by Carolus Duran of Paris, dated 1870, includes a pajarita. The picture is in the collection of the Detroit Institute of Arts. It shows a group of three women sitting around a table entertaining a child of about 18 months who sits on the lap of one of the women. On the table is a live bird with a long tail and a traditional paper pajarita which the woman sitting opposite the child is holding.  This picture was reproduced on the front page of the Newsletter of The Friends of the Origami Center of North America, Fall 1989.

Origami is quite frequently depicted in Japanese prints, often of exquisite quality, of the 18th and 19th centuries. There is a large A4 sized booklet in Japanese by Satoshi Takagi which depicts a fair collection of them. The translation of the title is sometimes given as "Origami from the Classics". The booklet was published in 1993 by the Nippon Origami Association.

The 10/22/98 LA Times had an article about a collage exhibit at Ventura College art galleries, 4667 Telegraph Rd., Ventura California -- 805-648-8974. Through October 30. Largest work, by Jan Kunkle, is titled,  "Origami" and is described, "as an ode from one medium involving folding and metamorphosing to another"

In October, 1999 there was an exhibition on the history of origami held in Tatsuno, Japan. The Japanese historian of origami, Masao Okamura wrote the text for the exhibition catalogue. The illustrations are in full color, and include a good selection of Japanese prints depicting origami.

In San Francisco there was a Crane exhibit at the California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park (February 2000). It was a photographic exhibit of cranes, but hanging from the ceiling were dozens of strands of large colored origami cranes.

Pajarita monument in Spain. "Pajaritas del Parque" is in Huesca Spain. Ramón Acín Monument-Miguel Servet Park http://eureka.ya.com/parquehuesca/

Pajaritas del parque - Vicente Casanueva drawing. http://www.tecdom.com/casanueva/obra26.html

There is another statue in Barcelona: http://diable.upc.es/~elena/barcelona/pajaritas.html  
 

The "Today" section of the March 4, 2000 Baltimore Sun, page 1E and 8E, ran a lengthy article on Chris Palmer. The article covered his background and how his origami evolved into silk tesselations or shadowfolds. The article, titled "Fabricating Art", was written by Stephanie Shapiro and included photos.

Vassily Polyenov’s son recorded in his diary that Leo Tolstoy folded a flapping bird during a train ride. A 1896 essay called “What is Art”, Tolstoy talks about learning to fold a flapping bird, and states that “the production of a cockerel like this is not only art, but good art.” [BOS 186 article by Misha Litvinov and Sergei Mamin]

There is a set of sculptures in Quebec that depict an origami-inspired cat jumping up onto a wall. It's outside a new government building next to the Hilton hotel, just outside the old city.

3/30/2000 - a poster from the Texas Council for the Humanities promoting a "Request For Proposals" showed a photo of a pair of hands holding a beautifully folded gold shell.

An exhibition on contemporary Japanese textile design at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (April 2000) had an "origami pleated" fabric. A paper template is pleated into chevrons and unfolded. A sheer fabric rests upon the template; the paper and cloth are pleated together and ironed to set the fold in the cloth. The dye collects in the folds to make lovely shading around the folds.

A newspaper article called "Extraordinary Exhibition of the Works of Nature and Art! Master Sanders K.G. Nellis, born without arms" The Salem, Massachusetts newspaper is unnamed, but the article is circa January 29, 1836.  The actual paper is in the collection of the Essex Institute, Salem, MA. The article is reproduced on page 175 of Priscilla S. Lord and David J. Foley's book "The Folk Arts and Crafts of New England", Philadelphia and New York: Chilton Books, [c1965].  Mr. Nellis gave at least two performances consisting of seven different parts at Washington Hall. The second part is of folding interest: "2nd, He will make a Paper Fly Box and fold a Letter in the True Love style." So, we know the balloon was known in the US in the 1830s. As for the letter 'in the true love style' -- this could be anything including a knotted letter, to the puzzle purse (known as the thread container in Japan).

The Ben Shahn exhibit of photographs of New York City has one entitled "Doesn't Everyone Read The Bulletin?" in which one person is wearing a hat folded from newspaper. The exhibit was at The Phillips Collection in Washington, DC in June 2000.

A film on Joan Son's "Origami Art" was shown at two Landmark Theaters in Houston, Texas during February 2001. In conjunction three special exhibits of her work will be held at an art gallery and other locations. Find out more at www.inthefold.com.

Along the Folded Edge was an exhibition from in Naples, Florida by Southeast Origami, Inc., which highlighted the fine art and craft styles of paper art.

The contemporary artist David Salle, who makes pictures with realistic images that are collaged together, included "origami" in a series of paintings (reported 2/2001).

Canadian artist Susan Shantz (professor of sculpture and multimedia in the art department at the University of Saskatchewan) had “Two sculptural installations” at the Natalie and James Thompson Art Gallery, Art Building, San Jose State University Shantz, “ …”Spin” features a series of glass disks hovering above the floor on cylinders of plastic that seem to be pieces from children's toys. … A small flotilla of origami boats leading away from the disks, many decorated with images of young children in social settings, is jarringly dissimilar to the rest of the work.

The June-August 2001 Seattle Art Museum Program Guide & Member News magazine on page 18 shows Seattle P.A.P.E.R. member Ray Takeuchi teaching a young girl origami. In the foreground is some of the models Ray folded and brought for exhibit including a large stellated modular, a couple of dinosaurs and the Kawasaki rose. The photo is from the event on March 10th that the Seattle origami group took part in for the installation of the Eagle by Alexander Calder at the Seattle Asian Art Museum for the Olympic Sculpture Park.

The Japanese Garden in San Diego will have an exhibit of Origami from October through December 2001. One of the display areas will be about Samurai Helmets (another will be Origami by Children). We have one art copy of a true Samurai Helmet. Next to it will be a model of Mr. Yoshino's helmet folded by Steve Hecht. We are working on two other interpretations of 'Samurai Helmet'. Workshops will be given by V’Ann Cornelius on Origami Cats and Dogs, Origami Kusudamas, and Origami Animated Toys. http://www.niwa.org 

Origami unfolded at the Depot Jan. 8, 2001 -- By Nathan Lindberg --  "Origami may bring to mind folded-paper cranes, and the Gallery at the Depot’s [Anacortes, WA] origami display, which opens Friday, has folded cranes in it. In fact, one piece by Mark Morden has 1,000 folded cranes in it that form a United States flag. But other pieces don’t look anything like folded cranes. Some of them could only be described of as art."

Japan Times 12/3/2000 – “PUTTING PAIN TO PAPER - Art to help heal the soul” By JOHN HART BENSON, Jr. “Artists Without Borders and its offspring, Kids Without Borders, are devoted to providing humanitarian relief to the victims of war and ethnic strife. As such, they share obvious connections with Doctors Without Borders. Instead of pills and poultices, however, the two organizations do their healing work with crayons, frogs and sometimes even Japanese clowns. … Origami proved to be an especially well-received activity and has since become a staple of Sierra's missions. "Many of the refugee children have no toys. Then we teach them to make a frog like this," Sierra said, using his forefinger to send an ingeniously-folded amphibian hopping across the table, "and suddenly they do. It's a tremendous boost to their spirits." http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?fa20001203a1.htm

In 2000, St. Paul, MN had statues of Snoopy painted by various artists on display around town in honor of Charles Schulz and also bring in tourists. In 2001 Charlie Brown graced the city, and one of the statues was wearing a newspaper hat. In 2002 there were Lucy statues all over town, one of which held two folded cranes, one dangling by a string from each arm. A set of ornaments based on the statues was created, called the Looking for Lucy collection. Number 8761 is called “Looking for Lucy, And Let it Begin with Me”. This is a reference to the song that goes "Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me", and the connection that origami cranes have as symbols of peace.

On June 22, 2002 there was a dedication ceremony for the Santa Monica Transit Mall Redevelopment Project, which covered a renovation and redesign of the street intersections around the Third Street Promenade pedestrian mall. Part of the renovation included the installation of four public drinking fountains; each drinking fountain topped by a bronze casting of one of Robert Lang’s origami designs: a Dragonfly, a Frog, a Garibaldi, and a Sea Urchin. The intersection adjacent to each drinking fountain has a giant crease pattern for the model in the middle of the intersection. Alas, the lines are so faint that you can't make them out unless you practically get down on your hands and knees. The bronze origami sculptures are at the corners of 2nd and Broadway, 4th and Broadway, 2nd and Santa Monica, and 4th and Santa Monica. The garibaldi (fish) and sea urchin have since been removed because the Santa Monica liability lawyers feared that someone would impale himself on their sharp bits. http://www.smmirror.com/volume4/issue1/downtown_in_transit.asp http://www.langorigami.com/Art/bronze/bronze.htm 

According to Marina Picasso's book "Picasso: My Grandfather" (Chatto and Windus, 2001), "He rips a sheet of paper out of his notebook, folds it over several times, incredibly fast, and his powerful hands produce a little dog or a flower.  "Do you like it?" he asks... We would like to take it home, but we're not allowed. It is the work of Picasso."

Buchanan Mall in Japantown in San Francisco, California has wonderful origami influenced sculptures Ruth Asawa, a long time Bay Area resident, sculptor and art activist. The Oakland Museum of California sponsored a show of  Ruth Asawa's work, called Completing the Circle, in September, 2002. There were examples of paper and metal influenced origami and huge metal crocheted forms plus Ruth's pine branch influenced works. The title came from Asawa's commitment to what she calls "completing the circle"--learning something, applying it, and then passing it on in some form so that it is not forgotten. http://www.ruthasawa.com/index.html http://www.ruthasawa.com/public.html http://www.ruthasawa.com/paper_gallery.html 

The August 2002 issue of Nylon magazine had a feature called “The Many Faces of Denim”. Nylon "gave 10 designers one meter of denim each and told them to let their imaginations run wild." Joseph Wu submitted three origami faces (heavily inspired by Eric Joisel's work), and this is the one they chose to lead the story with. Unfortunately, they forgot to include "folding" when they talked about the methods used.

The September/October 2002 issue of Wildlife Art Magazine featured an article about the Origamido Studio, Michael LaFosse, and Satoshi Kamiya's paper making apprenticeship there.

Iowa State University News, 4/22/03, had an article called “Student’s Paper Bugs on Exhibit”. Yong-Lak Park, a graduate assistant in entomology, exhibited a collection of 33 origami insects, all native to Iowa. http://www.iastate.edu/news/today/2003/apr/origami.html and http://www.ent.iastate.edu/origami/. In the Winter 2003 issue of American Entomologist (Vol. 49 #4), there was an article by Yong-Lak Park and Jeff Bradshaw entitled, "Insect Origami: Into the Fold," with color pictures, bibliography, and many models designed by the first author.

Spotted on the May 26, 2003 episode of Antiques Roadshow, from San Diego: A Meissen figurine from the early 20th century, believed to be by Conrad Inchel depicting a boy wearing a folded newspaper hat and riding a hobby horse, valued at $2000-$2500.

Hood ornament (incorrectly identified as an origami plane rather than the traditional pajarita) - "Attributed to Cardeilhac. This mascot is unique, and was mounted on Captain Vuillemin’s car. 1915. The purity of the cubist form is especially attractive. The Hispano Suiza stork was later adopted as his squadron mascot. MLG953." http://www.finesse-fine-art.com/Mascots/Mascot009.htm 

Hood ornament (incorrectly identified as a boy riding an origami plane, rather than a pajarita bird) - "‘Cocotte’. Designed by A. Renevey. French 1920. This most charming subject is related to Captain Vuillemin and his 1915 flying achievements. MLG365." http://www.finesse-fine-art.com/Mascots/Mascot033.htm 

The Toy Museum of Catalonia in Figueres is hosted a workshop and exhibition called ORIGAMI that was installed at the Sala Oberta from the 24th June to the 28th September 2003.

A stained glass window on the fourth floor of the Ottumwa, Iowa Regional Hospital Center has origami birds flying over a rainbow. Dr. Wetrich, OBGYN, created this work.

A work by Scott Kim in 1988 was commissioned by high school mathematics teacher David Masunaga for a talk about origami and to illustrate the concept of grafting one construction onto another. The design was also published in Peter Engel's book "Origami from Angelfish to Zen". The four letters RIGA in the middle of ORIGAMI form the two Chinese characters which are called ORI and GAMI in Japanese. http://www.scottkim.com/inversions/gallery/origamibilingual.html 

A work by Scott Kim in1988 was commissioned by high school mathematics teacher David Masunaga for a talk about origami and as a challenge to illustrate inversion and symmetry. The design was also published in Peter Engel's book "Origami from Angelfish to Zen". David Masunaga teaches at Iolani School in Honolulu, Hawaii. http://www.scottkim.com/inversions/gallery/origami.html

Artwork "Chinese Boat" by Irene Singer

Artist Tamara Tamsin – “Funagata (2002). 61 Funagata, or boats, were released from a river tributary to travel to the Atlantic Ocean. Slips of paper were mailed to friends and family to pen a message that were later folded and sealed into the hull of each boat. The Japanese culture, having such prominence in my life as a child, influenced the fusion of ancient ancestral rites of Okuribi, with my American Indian tradition of casting out a canoe with the personal affects of the deceased. Both cultures believe this process is necessary in order to release the soul from this world to the next.” http://www.tamaratamsin.com/archives-funagata.htm 

9/2003 – “The Paper Sculpture Book” - Inspired by a project in Cabinet #4, this full-color book contains 29 artist-designed paper sculptures to tear out and build yourself. All sculptures are brand new — commissioned just for this book. More than a catalogue, this book is the entire basis for “The Paper Sculpture Show,” an innovative new traveling exhibition organized by Cabinet in collaboration with SculptureCenter, NY, and Independent Curators International, NY. In "The Paper Sculpture Show," the gallery visitor is invited to construct the artist-designed sculptures on the spot. Assembly requires only basic office supplies. Some sculptures are easier to build than others. Some will frustrate, some will inspire. This large, softcover book is 160 pages and contains sculptures by Janine Antoni, The Art Guys, David Brody, Luca Buvoli, Francis Cape and Liza Phillips, Minerva Cuevas, Seong Chun, E.V. Day, Nicole Eisenman, Spencer Finch, Charles Goldman, Rachel Harrison, Stephen Hendee, Patrick Killoran, Glenn Ligon, Cildo Meireles, Helen Mirra, Aric Obrosey, Ester Partegàs, Paul Ramirez Jonas, Akiko Sakaizumi, David Shrigley, Eve Sussman, Sarah Sze, Fred Tomaselli, Pablo Vargas- Lugo, Chris Ware, Olav Westphalen, and Allan Wexler. http://www.cabinetmagazine.org/shop/product_info.php?cPath=22&products_id=59

Lindsay Wildlife Museum 1931 First Avenue, Walnut Creek, CA 9/20/2003-1/11/2004 “Origami Art by Robert Lang” - Thirty-three of Dr. Lang’s original origami animals were dsplayed at the Lindsay Wildlife Museum. The Contra Costa Times did an interview with Robert Lang on 9/21/2003. http://www.bayarea.com/mld/cctimes/entertainment/6825534.htm

Lower Manhattan, in the Dey Street 4-5 line downtown subway token booth, there is a 6 sided modular folded from six MetroCards on prominent display.

Portrait of an Artist By Ryan Witt http://www.georgiastraight.com/?defaultarticle=&defaultnode=40383&layout=227 
THE ARTISTS: Elisa Gonzalez and Gretchen Elsner
THE LOWDOWN: Thank you human and machine is an origami window installation comprising more than 500 colourful cube constructions. They're derived from three previous performance works executed around Vancouver.
COORDINATES: At the Union gallery (478 Union Street) until October 30, 2003
PROCESS-ORIENTED: The artists have collaborated on a number of occasions and found the repetitive process of origami folding both pleasurable and philosophical. "We met through origami," Gonzalez says. "It's one of the only things that can't be automated," Elsner adds. "Each of the cubes had to be blown up with our breath."
WHAT IT ALL MEANS: By revelling in the repetitive patterns of everyday life, the artists look to draw attention to the pleasures of labour, whether by people or machines "People delight in repetition," Elsner says.

Gallery 101 in Ottowa, Ontario, Canada: Folding and Unfolding September 12, 2003-October 18, 2003. “Uprooted from her home in New York City by the events of September 11, 2001, Heather Nicol’s subsequent work uses spare, simple materials (paper, monofilament, pins, a video camera and monitor) to reflect on deception, surveillance, memory, aggression, manipulation, seduction and beauty. In the downstairs space, squadrons of ornate, colourfully patterned origami airplanes hang suspended from a webbing across the ceiling. Many are bedecked with jeweled and military hardware, their bright prettiness a direct contrast to the inherently masculine and ponderous machines deployed in recent all-too-real acts of surveillance and attack. Inspired by the Japanese paper-folding tradition of "One Thousand Cranes," this memorial, pacifist process has been appropriated for use in another cultural and historical context. The work is at once seductive and unsettling, contrasting the ennoblement of aggression with a delicate symphony of form, colour, and movement. The strong theatrical lighting and the presence of a video camera add an additional level of signification, with references to television’s manipulative presentation of war imagery.” http://www.gallery101.org/ 

Festival of Origami Architecture at the National Building Museum Saturday, March 30, 2002 • 10 am - 4 pm

12/31/2003 was the the last day of a lovely show of cheerful oil paintings, watercolors, prints and drawings--all of them featured images of pajaritas or paper boats. The artist, Chantal Ripol, is Spanish but lives in Brussels—the exhibit was in the Gallery Alfican in the Place Grand Sablon in Brussels.

A work by Vern Dauphin entitled “Electronic Origami” http://www.synthetik.com/Gallery/Gallery-Still/Gallery-Still_Pages/Gallery3_image_pages/image7.htm

TAKEI Takeo - Origami, from "Kadomo no kuni" [Children's Land] magazine, 1927.3. Takei was born in Suwa, Nagano prefecture in 1894. To support his family he produced illustrations for children for Kodomo no tomo [Child's Friend], a children's magazine published by Fujin no Tomo Sha. In 1922 he became one of the leading illustrators for Kodomo no kuni [Children's Land] from its inaugural issue. http://www.kodomo.go.jp/gallery/digi/KODOMO_WEB/gallery/g_e011.html http://www.kodomo.go.jp/gallery/digi/KODOMO_WEB/authors/takei_e.html 

FLorigami: Folded Images of Florida's Hidden Nature, 4/2/2005-9/18/2005 at the Morikami Museum of Art and Japanese Gardens west of Delray Beach, Florida. Michael LaFosse created 25 paper sculptures depicting vegetation and animals of the Everglades. Part of the exhibit features 10,000 paper turtles made by Palm Beach County students. "The turtles we made symbolize our desire that the Everglades ecosystem be restored to health and remain viable for a long time to come." http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-porigami02apr02,0,4713223.story?coll=sfla-news-front 

Mark Bolitho helped the curator of the After Hiroshima exhibition to coordinate a display of origami cranes in further commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. The anniversary date, August 6, 2005, includes an origami workshop on making peace cranes. The exhibit includes peace cranes by Barbara Jones made of paper printed with an image of smallpox cells or names of diseases that are feared as potential biological weapons (anthrax and smallpox) or that spread as a result of war (cholera and typhoid).  AFTER HIROSHIMA: Nuclear Imaginaries, Brunei  Gallery, School of Oriental and African Studies, Thornhaugh Street, London. www.afterhiroshima.org http://www.afterhiroshima.org/crane_project.htm 

At the SIGGRAPH (the special interest group on Computer Graphics of the Association for Computing Machinery) conference in Los Angeles in August 2005, William Joel ran an a "guerrilla theater" performance art event in which attendees folded cranes from scrap paper with printed with computer generated graphics. The results were displayed in a big room.

In the Maui Mall on the island of Maui in the US state of Hawaii is the Paper Airplane Museum. This museum bills itself as the "First Aviation Museum on Maui" and the "World's Only Known Paper Airplane Museum". It holds a collection of over 2,500 cardboard/paper airplane models (ranging from daVinci's 15th-century model to a one of the space shuttle) as well as photos relating to Hawaii's aviation history. Only those airplanes that are 95% paper qualify for the museum. If you'd like to tackle a project on your own, kits in all levels of difficulty are for sale. The museum also features the creations of owner Ray Roberts, "The Tin Can Man of Maui." Ray builds models of ships, airplanes, cars, boats, trains, dinosaurs, ukuleles, and more out of soda cans. Almost all of his creations are for sale. Located at 70 E Ka'ahumanu Ave, (Maui Mall), Kahului, HI, phone 808-877-8916. Take Kaahumanu Avenue (Highway 32) east. Maui Mall is on the left side of the road before Hana Highway and after the Kahului Shopping Center. http://www.hawaiiweb.com/maui/html/sites/paper_airplane_museum.html 

One of Kitagawa Utamara's Shunga picture from three volume band Ehon takaraguchi, dated 1800, contains a painted tzuru, folded from white paper. Also in the picture were a musical instrument, a book, and a paintbrush, representing other arts, so the origami was in good company.

2/2006 - In the show "Dada" at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, there is a screening room of several Dada short films running continuously. One of them, "Entr 'acte (Intermission)," 1924, by Rene Clair and Francis Picabia includes a 10 or 15 second sequence with a traditional origami boat floating in the air. The film consists of a series of comedic gags, random associations, and unexpected surprises to create a collection of images which seemed to mean something, even as they purposely frustrate coherence at every turn.

2/2006 - Mark Leonard spent a week in Barga, in northern Italy, placing origami models around town and installing a 2 meter tall piece of public sculpture made out of origami. One of the ideas behind this piece was that it would destroy itself over a period of time, through a combination of the wind, the rain, and collapsing under its own weight.  Thus it was both about the strength of the paper and about its weakness. Initial hopes were that the sculpture would last for a few days, but the arrival of a thunderstorm that afternoon shortened the lifespan to a few hours. http://www.barganews.com/daily/2006/02/21/paper-folder-mark-leonard-working-in-barga/ 

3/3/2006 -  The Times of Trenton, New Jersey carried an article called "Teacher curates exhibit of students' works" by Janet "Timelessness also is present in this exhibition in the painting "Origami Landscape" by Karen Reeds and her accompanying display of origami, which served as the setup for a class session. A paper folder since childhood, Reeds is a historian of science and medicine who serves as guest curator of the traveling exhibition, "Linnaeus & America," opening in 2007 at the American Swedish Historical Museum in Philadelphia." http://www.nj.com/search/index.ssf?/base/entertainment-0/1141377404242230.xml?times?eal&coll=5 

"Paper artist knows when to fold 'em, when to mold 'em", by Eileen McClelland, 4/3/06 in the Houston Chronicle. The article talks about work by Kevin Box, who folds and unfolds paper models and then casts them in bronze or other metals.  http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ent/arts/art/3767804.html and http://www.outsidetheboxstudio.com Tansu in Houston featured an exhibit - http://www.tansustyle.com/kevinbox/index.html 

Artist Natalie Kroll was commissioned to do a stainless steel origami horse for the Mitsui Manufactuer's Bank in L.A. www.nataliekrol.com 

Origami metal sculptures by Bruce Keller. www.neuralzone.com/origamisculpture/ 

Unusual paper jewelry that has been displayed in several galleries. http://www.nellinssen.nl/ 

March 4 - May 20, 2005 - The work of German photographer Thomas Demand at the Museum of Modern in NYC. Demand begins with a preexisting image culled from the media, usually of a political event, which he translates into a life-size model made of colored paper and cardboard. Once they have been photographed, the models are destroyed. http://www.moma.org/exhibitions/2005/demand.html 

"Attention, Company!" by William Harnett  is an 1878 painting of a boy in a newspaper hat.  The painting is owned by the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth, Texas.  It is on display until September 17, 2006 at the Smithsonian's newly reopened National Museum of American Art in Washington, DC in the American ABC: Childhood in 19th Century America exhibit. The web page at http://www.art.unt.edu/offlinentieva/aps/green/aps9.htm describes a Texas first grade class's art lesson and story based on the painting.  http://www.cartermuseum.org/paintings/paintings.html

The Daily Reporter-Herald (Loveland, Colorado) carried an article called "Joining the Fold" by Phyllis Walbye. The article talks about the Sculpture in the Park festival and features artist Kevin Box and his bronze sculptures based on origami, including "Rising Crane", "Blue Pony", "Painted Ponies", "Just Unfolding", and "Paper Planes". Kevin states that his mission is “to bring the delicacy and lightness of the paper art to bronze.” http://www.lovelandfyi.com/Entertainment/index.asp?ID=6386 http://www.sculptureinthepark.org/ 

Oct 25, 2006 - The Spirit of Peace, a 20-foot tall bronze origami crane sculpture by Caprice Glaser will be dedicated at the Minneapolis (Minnesota, USA) Peace Garden. Jane Rosemarin, from the Peace Garden committee, is arranging for folded cranes to cover the grass around the sculpture for the dedication. The sculpture represents five steps in the folding of an origami crane, with a completed crane at the top. The first step, a preliminary base, sits on a globe. The globe is set on a plinth that will have "peace" and related words inscribed in many languages. The boulders surrounding the sculpture have bronze plaques engraved with instructions for folding a crane. A visitor can pick up a piece of paper from a nearby stand and fold a crane by proceeding around the circle for successive steps. The photo below is a small model of the sculpture.

FORM AND SPIRIT: The Origami Art of Peter Engel September 28 - October 22, 2006 at the Schmucker Art Gallery at Gettysburg College http://www.gettysburg.edu/about/offices/provost/gallery/calendar_200607.dot 

In The Guardian (UK) "Sound and vision at Tate Modern" by Esther Addley, September 1, 2006. About a challenge issued for 8 musicians to compose a track in response to a work of modern art: "Writing about music, someone once said, is like dancing about architecture. In which case making music about abstract art must be a little like knitting origami in rhyming couplets."

At the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center is an exhibit titled "September 11, 2001: Global Response & Personal Remembrance".  Tanya Hoggard of Oakley, Ohio got permission from firehouses around NYC to collect the items left there or sent to them after the attacks. "Also featured are colorful origami sculptures from Japan and a letter that came with 365 drawings made by schoolchildren in France. Works by children from across the United States also are featured." http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060907/NEWS01/609070335 

"Birdsong" (2004), the work of Indian-born British artist Sutapa Biswas opens with a sustained shot of an origami Pegasus, light glinting on its silver surface as it twirls from a string. http://web.reed.edu/gallery/ 

Japanese artist Shin Tanaka makes "origami" creatures (really more like cut and folded paper sculptures) with names like Spiky, Spiky-B, and Wallman. Tanaka moonlights as a paper shoe designer. The templates for both his creatures and shoes are available for download on his website. http://www.ohashi-lab.bio.kyutech.ac.jp/~shin/ http://www.ohashi-lab.bio.kyutech.ac.jp/~shin/CUSTOM_DESIGNED_COLLECTION/ 

The Longwood Gardens (Pennsylvania) Chrysanthemum Festival will take place from October 28 -November 19, 2006.  The Festival includes more than 20,000 chrysanthemums flourishing inside Longwood's greenhouses. In 2006, Longwood will feature origami throughout the display with its center piece, a 2000 paper crane mobile, cascading from the ceiling of the lush orchid house. Robert J. Lang be on hand October 28th folding five foot long koi. Uwe Hollerbach folded a couple of Montroll turtles folded out of stainless steel mesh that will be hiding somewhere in the gardens. http://www.longwoodgardens.org 

The Roger Tory Peterson Institute is a national, non-profit nature education organization with headquarters in Jamestown, New York, birthplace of world renowned artist and naturalist, Roger Tory Peterson (1908-1996). Sep 22, 2006-Jan 05, 2007 the institute will host "Natural Folds: Origami Works of Robert J. Lang and The Cranes of Rajasthan: Photography by Birgit F. Bateman" The exhibit will include more than 40 origami pieces relating to the natural world along with 20 outstanding photographs of Demoiselle Cranes taken in their native habitat in Khichan, Rajasthan, India. http://www.rtpi.org/ 

Sept 23-24, 2006 at the sixth annual Lincoln Arts Festival (Nebraska) Linda Stephen will display her "origami art landscapes". The landscapes are created using separate pieces folded and laid out on a canvas. “It’s kind of like when people do paintings out of quilts or fabric,” she said. “Its the same idea, I just use paper.”  http://www.journalstar.com/articles/2006/09/19/sunday_am/doc450879759701a466491204.txt  See examples here: http://solcards.com/ 

Using flashing bulbs, spinning rotors and sound effects, 70-year-old former teacher Ee Choo Teck has transformed discarded advertisement brochures into colourful fighter jet, ship and helicopter lanterns. He makes them as home decorations and as gifts for his grandson's.

The peace crane is a familiar origami form. What makes the work of award-winning polymer clay artist Judy Dunn different is that her cranes are folded from polymer clay rather than paper. On October 23, 2006, Dunn folded her 1000th crane from polymer clay. The cranes are a symbol of peace, prosperity, fidelity and long life, and Japanese legend has it that by folding 1000 cranes, a wish will be granted by the gods. http://www.prweb.com/releases/2006/10/prweb458258.htm http://www.moms-studio.com/ http://www.moms-studio.com/id45.html 

Richard Sweeney, a paper artist in the UK, produces pleated, curved, and modular pieces. He won a New Designers DKNY design award  It may not all be pure origami, but worth a look: http://www.richardsweeney.co.uk/index.htm http://www.newdesigners.com/page.cfm/link=313 

Artist Livio De Marchi has a wood sculpture called "Dove of Peace in origami style" http://www.liviodemarchi.com/ukmain3.htm 

Flax Art has interactive instructions for folding a start kusudama - http://www.flaxart.com/Origami-Star 

2007 Budweiser Select International Snow Sculpture Championships - Team Canada captured bronze with "Almost There," a sculpture of a hand making the last fold in an Origami squirrel.

The Jerusalem Post, 1/31/2007, carried "Something from Nothing" by Yocheved Miriam Russo, about an exhibit of origami faces by Saadya Sternberg, called "Brown Paper"  http://www.jpost.com:80/servlet/Satellite?cid=1167467855413&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

2/20/2007 - 7/21/2007 The Mingei International Museum North County ran an exhibition called "Paper Transformed", featuring two separate sections: "Origami ----The Art of Paper Folding", with 100 origami pieces, and "Crowning Glory ---- Paper Bag Hats by Moses", with 250 hats constructed from paper grocery bags. The exhibition’s Curator is V’Ann Cornelius. http://www.mingei.org/curex_north_museum.html 

"Paper Cuts, The Art of Contemporary Paper", is the title of a show running March 24 to April 29, 2007 at the Hearst Art Gallery located on the campus of Saint Mary's College of California in Moraga, California. The flyer includes a photo of a Giant Hairy Scorpion by Michael G. LaFosse.

March 25, 2007 An exhibition in Wolverhampton (UK) of works held by millionaire collector Frank Cohen includes a sculpture that appears to be made from a folded blue tarpaulin. The life-size sculpture is "The Pianist" by American contemporary artist Matt Johnson. Johnson shaped the pieces of plastic, steel and paper to create the piano - a tribute to origami artist Robert J Lang. http://www.expressandstar.co.uk:80/2007/03/24/art-show-is-talking-point/ 

Artist Cassandra Laing uses origami in some works. Fortune teller (it will all end in stars) is a drawing that features Laing's hands holding an origami fortune teller. The drawing evokes the games of childhood, the yearning to foretell the future, to hope and to dream and to know. My Paper Ancestors features an origami dinosaur and Darwin's dead finches.

THE BCA TEN is a national list created by the Business Committee for the Arts, Inc. (BCA) to recognize businesses of all sizes for their exceptional involvement with the arts that enrich the workplace, education and the community. The BCA TEN 2006 awards booklet, designed by ADLubow.com, included a crane folded out of newspaper. The theme was "The arts fuel creativity. Creativity powers ideas. Ideas make business soar." Inside pages showed the step folds for a crane as a bottom border. http://www.bcainc.org/thebcaten.html 

May 2007 - The Cystic Fibrosis Research Institute (CFRI) holds an annual fundraiser every May called the Mother's Day Tea.  This year, the cards they sent out re the event used a picture of a Japanese fan, pot of tea, and several origami cranes. http://www.cfri.org/home.html 

June 1, 2007 - An origami piece titled "Good Night Grace" by Lou Ziegler, won the Open Art Award at the Lancaster (PA) Museum of Art. http://local.lancasteronline.com/4/205052 

June 2007 - Pang-Chieh Hsu, a professor of art at AASU, created a display that features 108 lotus flowers arranged nine-in-row on 12 vertically ascending levels to symbolize 12 different karmas of Buddhism. It was shown in conjunction with the 12th Annual Asian Festival at the Jepson Center for the Arts.

June 2007 "French artist Pierre Bismuth (*1963, France) uses a clever blend of dadaist tradition and witty conceptual art to explore established notions of visual reproduction. With an apparent levity that belies the magnitude of the gesture, he undermines the significance and aura of the work of art, while at the same time reclaiming it for himself. In his Origami Unfolded series, a reproduction of a work of art, folded into an origami figure, takes on a new status as (applied) art. These new hybrid works are an ingenious cross between reproduction and appropriation." http://www.actuphoto.com:80/photographie_5135 

June 2007 - Jonathan Baxter has opened The New Zealand Origami Collection at Rotorua's Arts Village. It was officially opened by Consul General of Japan Mr Takamichi Okabe. The permanent display features origami designs from all over the world.

July 11, 2007 on newsreview.info "Banners depicting salmon beautify downtown Roseburg" by Chris Grey. "After Hiroshima, the origami crane became a symbol of peace and of healing. “So this became a symbol of healing for the salmon,” said Marjorie Feldman, explaining the salmon banner she painted, origami-style. “It details how to fold a salmon.” From paper scrap to completed fish, her painting shows the origami folds one would make with paper. Her banner on Jackson Street near City Hall is one of 45 gracing downtown Roseburg for the Salmon Run Public Art Project" http://www.newsreview.info:80/article/20070711/NEWS/70711012 
 
Marjorie Feldman stands under her banner titled "Origami Salmon" along Jackson Street in Roseburg. Her banner on Jackson Street near City Hall is one of 45 hanging from downtown Roseburg lamp posts as part of the Salmon Run Public Art Project. ANDY BRONSON / N-R staff photo 

July 2007 - At Daniel Reich Gallery (537A W. 23rd St, New YorkCity), Futoshi Miyagi's ``Island of Shattered Glass,'' the title piece of the show, a pile of shredded origami paper sits on a white cotton cloth on the floor. A camera on a tripod faces the composition. The piece is $5,500. This pile is an end product of the show's other works, in which torn pieces of origami paper are used to make collage-images that the artist says come from his childhood. He then photographs them. http://www.danielreichgallery.com/ 

July 2007 - Neeta Madahar's "Cosmoses" is on display at the Howard Yezerski Gallery in Boston. Madahar folded origami cosmos flowers, scattered them on photographic paper, and exposed them to light, making photograms. The origami flowers are in various colors and sizes; some opaque and some translucent. Different types of photographic paper were used, some producing positive images and some negative images. http://www.howardyezerskigallery.com/index.html http://www.purdyhicks.com/nm_images_1.htm 

August 2007 - "Remember in sixth grade you made like 20 model airplanes because you had nothing better to do and were going through puberty and nobody liked you?...Make Philly is a community of super creative, smart, nerdy, crafty, techies/designers that like to have a good time with really cool Philadelphians and make something in the process." http://www.makephilly.com/ 

Matthew Shlian has a MFA degree, but says he was trained as a paper engineer. His website contains fascinating pictures and videos of his paper constructions. http://www.mattshlian.com/ 

August 2007, at Giant Robot New York - Susie Ghahremani titled her solo art show "Teacher's Pets" because she takes imaginary animals and teaches them how to do her favorite things: play the piano, make origami, ride a bike, swing in a hammock without falling out. http://www.artcal.net:80/event/view/6/5212 

A major exhibition called "Treasures of Origami Art" ran at the Tikotin Museum of Japanese Art in Haifa, Israel Aug 17-Dec 31, 2007. It featured various types and styles of origami masterworks from artists throughout the world. http://www.giladorigami.com/Tikotin/index.html 

"Pupils' poppy picture takes pride of place" by Paul Fisher in Bedford Today (UK), November 15, 2007. "The photograph of brown paper poppies, created by pupils aged ten and 11 from Robert Bruce Middle School, Kempston, has been chosen not only to appear at the Remembrance Sunday exhibition, but is the premier piece. ... Alison Gaynor, head of art at the school, said: "We were studying what it would be like to be sent to war and one of the pupils made an origami poppy. 'The petals of the paper poppies represent the layers of emotions involved in war and have been created from torn maps of Bedford and Kempston, handwritten copies of the poem The Man He Killed, by Thomas Hardy, and brown paper, which was once used to wrap gas masks in.' "

Kyushu-based artist Takayuki Senzaki creates beautiful decor with paper. During this year’s DesignTide, his colourful origami-style chandeliers as part of his ORIKAMI exhibition filled the walls with mysterious shadows creating a magical atmosphere. http://pingmag.jp/2007/11/22/takayuki-senzaki http://www.tetusin.com/ 

February 2008 - In a newsletter for the "iStockphoto" service, an image of origami cranes flying out of a expanding file folder. http://tinyurl.com/29j2sb 

March 2, 2008 - "Book binder finds perfection somewhere between the pages of art and technique" by Deborah Burdick. Steve Cochran of Mount Vernon, Ind., creates unique book-forms for his business Bound to Be Around Bindery. "Incorporating elements including calligraphy, rubber-stamping and Japanese origami, one of his creations might look more like a paper caterpillar than a traditional volume. ... "An origami folded paper frog is not a book," he says. "But glue it between two covers, and maybe build a little case for it, and suddenly, you've turned it into a book [--] or something that is booklike. Suddenly, it's both book and art. It's book art." http://www.courierpress.com:80/news/2008/mar/02/book-binder-finds-perfection-somewhere-between-pag/ 
JASON CLARK / Courier & Press

Outdoor art on the Embarcadero in San Francisco - 

March 2008 - "Design and the Elastic Mind" at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City (Feb 24 - May 12) features nano-scale smiley-faces folded from viral DNA (Paul W. K. Rothemund). Martin and Erik Demaine, a father-and-son team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), created Computational Origami — folded and interlocked paper loops that demonstrate the use of computer-aided design to squeeze large objects into small spaces. Robert Lang's origami models of the Fresnel lens for the Eyeglass Space Telescope. The lens was designed to fold up to fit in a rocket and then expanded in space to a diameter of 100 metres — roughly the length of a football field.
Photo / Donna Coveney

Julia Karll uses traditional origami cranes in artworks that highlight the horrors of war. A work called "Cranes of Despair" is heap of cranes on the floor which are folded from newspaper accounts or war and violence. http://thewip.net:80/contributors/2008/03/art_for_a_time_of_crisis.html 

March 28, 2008 in The Norman Transcript, "'Dreamer 9: Migrations ... the Origami Experience' art opening Saturday" - "This exhibition examines the way local artists have adapted the ancient, non-western artistic tradition of Origami to communicate a broad range of issues such as psychological and emotional journey, cultural division, and environmental sustainability. ... The majority of the Origami included in the show has been created from recycled materials in order to promote awareness for issues surrounding environmental sustainability." The exhibit includes interpretations of origami by painters, scultpors, screen-printers, poets. http://www.normantranscript.com:80/entertainment/local_story_088002347  http://newsok.com:80/article/3222218/1206737516 

June 1, 2008 - "Sarah Morris' Black Beetle on View at Fondation Beyeler". Sarah Morris has created long mural (“Black Beetle,” 23.7 x 3.8 meters) that reflects her interest in origami and the changes going on in the city of Beijing, site of the upcoming Olympics. Origami was chosen as a medium because it is commonly accepted that origami originated in China with the advent of paper in the 1st century AD and then spread to Japan in 600AD. "It is a simple process which gives rise to complex forms." http://www.artdaily.com:80/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new=24483 

June 2008 - Etienne Cliquet combines architecture, art, and origami. All projects realized in combination with the "Cité Internationale Universitaire" (Paris). Two projects pictured below - see the web sites for others. http://www.ordigami.net/giant-box http://www.ordigami.net/suiss-fondation http://www.ordigami.net/dutch-college http://www.ordigami.net/espace-sud-en http://www.ordigami.net/toward-np 

June 2008 - "Flytrap" is an installation by Nova Jiang where viewers are invited to fold a paper plane and then use a powered launcher to try to fly the plane through a gauntlet of scissors to land in a large fabric funnel. The website features a video and pictures. http://www.novajiang.com:80/installations/the-flytrap 

The Origami V-12 Engine is a paper model that uses a motor and battery to move a crankshaft, fan, rods, and pistons like a real engine. The engine kit can be purchased online for about $110, and consists of 195 sheets of printed patterns that make 1978 pieces of the engine. The designer, Yee, says it takes an average of 142 hours to build. While he uses origami techniques, he prefers to refer to this as Zhi Yi (in Chinese Zhi=paper, Yi=art). http://blog.wired.com:80/gadgets/2008/06/the-artist-behi.html http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/06/the-amazing-ori.html 

Copyright © Janet Hamilton 2008

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