Explore the Versatile Art of Origami

November 2019

Origami is in the news – for its technological implications, and as a focus of exhibitions and installations across the United States. 

MoMath: the National Museum of Mathematics showcases notable examples of mathematical origami art through 1/5. Robotician Jamie Paik and her team drew inspiration from origami designs to create "robogamis": folding robots made from ultra-thin materials that can reshape and transform themselves; check out their TED Talk here.

You See, a 2014 work of elephant hide paper and hand-blown glass by Erik Demaine & Martin Demaine.

The exhibition “Above the Fold: New Expressions in Origami” will soon open at Wisconsin's Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum of Wausau, while the American Museum of Natural History unveils a Christmas tree decorated with 800 hand-folded paper dinosaur ornaments; Kyodo News writes that origami first arrived at the Museum in the early 1970s, when entomologist Alice Gray began creating paper models of the insects in the Museum’s collections.

Thousands of origami birds decorate Discovery Green Park in downtown Houston and a charitable installation in Irving, Texas. And The New York Times examines the history, popularity, and cross-disciplinary impact of origami (which dates back thousands of years, but was standardized by Akira Yoshizawa and Samuel Randlett in the 1950s); read the full article here.