I gotta get out on the street and shoot some new material but for today one last work from the Origami In The Garden show will suffice. This is the last one you pass as you are about to leave. I interpret is as a crane on a crane on a crane on a base.
A few days ago we saw one of these metal sculptures in the garden that was a clever representation of the rock paper scissors game. How are we to interpret, though, horse scissors crane? Maybe it's just a visual representation of the complicated and simple things you can do with pieces of paper and something to cut them.
This installation at the metal as origami show seemed strange to me. The figures appear to be running or prancing horses but the flat metal construction makes them look so stiff. Kind of like me some days. In any event, they aren't getting away.
I suppose you could make smaller versions of these figures out of paper if you had good instructions and enough dexterity (which I don't). The metal acorn lies across a footpath from the squirrel, right under its nose, so to speak. The rodent's metal joints must be too stiff to reach it.
Back for a little more of the metal origami in our botanical garden. The paper boat or paper hat - it amounts to the same thing - is a simple, basic example of the paper folding art. Here, two of them float without ever moving in the lake of the tranquil Japanese garden. The scene looks static but the burgeoning spring is not.
Now this looks more like origami, although I suppose it would have to be made of many pieces of paper glued together. Does that fit the definition? The pose makes me think of those stunt planes that appear to fly on their side for a bit. Neither an aircraft or a goose could maintain lift more than momentarily like this but it looks cool.
CITY DAILY PHOTO MEMBERS - REMEMBER THAT TOMORROW IS MONTHLY THEME DAY. THE TOPIC IS EARTH, THE EARTH OR JUST DIRT. AND YOUR ADMINISTRATORS WOULD LOVE TO HAVE SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTURE THEMES.
Not all of the pieces in the Origami In The Garden show appear to relate to the Japanese art of paper folding. Paper has a limited ability to curve. If I were to walk up to this with no context and someone asked me what it made me think of, I'd say some kind of segmented succulent plant with a moth draped in a sheet escaping from the top.
The blue placard on the right says the name is Emerging Peace. Um, maybe more like a winged insect dressed as a ghost for Halloween, but that's just me. The tulips are nice.
Another stack of cranes, this one in the rose garden, which is far from prime time. The balance and rhythm make me think of the stabiles of Alexander Calder. The arch in the back can be interesting but isn't fully dressed yet. I hope the garden puts it back up soon for the warm months - usually there is an exquisite sunburst by Dale Chihuly.
This was taken inside the Climatron, the geodesic dome seen in yesterday's post. To me, part of the charm of origami is its lightness, its ethereal quality. Sheets of steel, even thin ones, make it hard to - how to say it? - suspend disbelief and imagine these objects in flight. Maybe I'm asking too much and should enjoy their grace in this man-made jungle.
Our large botanical garden has lots of festivals and special events to draw in the public. The new display is called Origami In The Garden. The Japanese art of paper folding is expanded on a large scale, using metal as its material. This is a tower of gradually smaller cranes.
It's nice but not spectacular, which the publicity led me to expect. Part of the wow of origami is you made that out of paper? Anyone with the tools and training can weld sheets of steel. Still, it is attractive amidst the spring foliage.
