Origami Heaven review on the New York Times

A review on Origami Heaven exhibit was on the New York Times on 12/5/2015.I am truly honored to be part of this group show!

 

Origami Heaven Exhibit

This week I attended the opening of the group show "Origami Heaven" at Stony Brook University's Charles B. Wang Center, Long Island, NY. I met so many talented artists and the people who organized the show. The space was impressive. I was truly honored and humbled to have my piece included among those artists with such impressive credentials.

The show statement.

The banner of the exhibit by the entrance of the building.

Panoramic view of the second floor gallery. My piece is on the left.

My piece titled, "Hope and Fear in the New Dark Age".

Jule Waibel's folded textile design.

Jule Waibel's fashion design using origami techniques.

Kumi Yamashita's very sophisticated paper pieces with cast shadows.

Kumi Yamashita's paper airplane with her pencil drawing.

Madeline del Toro Cherney's paper bow ties.

Qi Hu's paper hat 1.

Qi Hu's paper hat 2.

Thomas Crain's wooden origami.

Wonju Seo's enormous fabric origami. Photo courtesy of Charles B. Wang Center.

I am explaining my process and how I designed this particular piece. Photo courtesy of Charles B. Wang Center.

I am giving away free animal templates to my audience. Photo courtesy of Charles B. Wang Center.

Origami Heaven piece

I finally finished the diptych for the paper craft show at Stony Brook University, Long Island, NY, which I just found out is called "Origami Heaven". I documented them before shipping them to the museum.

This is how they look side by side.

This is the panel #1 on the left.

A detail of the dove.

Scored, cut and painted feathers.

The feathers are placed in the way which they progressively move further away from the blue background as they travel from left to right of the picture plane. This was done by paper sticks of various lengths lifting the feathers from underneath. This photo also shows how the white rope disappears into the black wooden frame.

 The panel #2 on the right.

A detail shot of the atomic bombs falling from (or suspended in) the sky. They all have folded braces behind them that lift the bombs away from the background surface.

Just like the panel #1, this is how the white rope this child is holding disappears into the black wooden frame.

A close up shot of the child. He was made out of one continuous sheet of paper, and partially hand colored.

I really don't know how to understand this particular piece. Partly because I have never done something that was straightforward and yet loaded with a social meaning like this. So this piece still feels very different and foreign to me. The big question I constantly struggled with while working on this project was how to describe abstract notions of collective fear and hope in art. Those emotions are usually triggered by specific circumstances and incidents. How to translate those emotions we feel on a collective level as human beings was very difficult for me to figure out. I didn't want this piece to be overly emotional or illustrative, and yet I wanted it to have a certain impact on the audience on the emotional and aesthetic levels (sounds like a lofty goal). I decided to use symbolism even though they might be seen as clichés. I don't disregard the value of clichés and don't necessarily see them in a negative light. I find there is a kind of cultural weight in clichés as a universal language no matter how banal they might seem. I did feel a need to add something more to the piece so that the work would somehow transcend the superficial and over-used symbolism. I tried to find a solution in the design and execution of the piece. But, to be honest, I am still not sure if this piece turned out to be successful or not. I guess I will just have to see how people will respond to it once it's hung on the wall...