August 31, 2020
Paper folding, something I grew up doing with family or just for fun. It’s somewhat therapeutic and helps me take my mind off of things.
While I did grow up on Zhezhi (Chinese paper folding), I also grew up watching Japanese anime. These animations showed me that there’s a Japanese legend that says, “Anyone who can fold 1,000 origami cranes will be granted a wish from the gods.” Some stories say that they grant happiness and eternal luck rather than just one wish. One thousand paper cranes are usually given to people that are ill or injured to wish for their recovery.
This came to mind as a homage for my Grandmother. I recently found out that for years she has been dealing with Hepatitis C that led to Cirrhosis in her liver. All that scarring and damage also led to my Grandmother getting Cancer.
So I guess you could see this as me trying to wish my Grandmother good health for many years to come.
But how could I take this tradition and make it my own?
Instead of placing each origami crane on a string and lining them up what could I do differently?
I could use the folded cranes and arrange them into one large crane and attach the large crane to strings to then hang it from the ceiling or walls
I could also create a flight of smaller cranes, flying through the sky.
September 8th, 2020
While searching for the paper I came across some interesting flower wrapping paper.
There’s this opalescent effect that reflects light nicely and is one aspect I was looking for.
A good reflection of light.
September 24, 2020
Taking a break from folding
As I was folding more cranes I realized I didn’t want this to be my first project. The more I folded the more I realized that I didn’t want to stop at a certain amount. With what I wanted to create I would need much more, so I decided that this would be an ongoing project. As I work on others this one will still be going on.
I decided to take a break from folding to focus on another work.
But before I write about that I found through discussions with Carmel a phenomenon called a murmuration. “This refers to the phenomenon that results when hundreds, sometimes thousands, of starlings fly in swooping, intricately coordinated patterns through the sky. ”
I found the formations of thousands of birds to be captivating. That made me think, I need to make more. If a murmuration is something I want to recreate than this needs to be an ongoing project. This would also be better shown in a location that is not my apartment. I need a bigger more open space to show this.