Origami Cranes in Blue
2018
Threads, steel rods, monofilament, black lights, ocean light, and sound effect
This installation “Origami Cranes in Blue” was inspired by my condition as a sojourner overlaid with my experiences from recent trips to Japan to see my mother who was ill. The origami crane represents my original cultural background, and the status as a sojourner traveling and searching for a home. Origami also reminds me of the memories of my mother making origami pieces for me when I was a child. The material of the thread often represents a notion of “relationship” and “connectivity” in my visual language. I am expressing my relationship with people, time, and place and asking a question that is personal to me, “what makes a home?” or “Where is the place to fully call home?”
The cranes glow even in the dark space because of the existence of lights. It reminds me that a sojourner has hope even in the current uncertainty of the place.
While making this work, I thought about a waka, a Japanese classic short poem, written by Yamabeno Akahito in the 8th century. This poem describes the scene of cranes flying at Wakanoura, a bay in my hometown in Japan.
To Wakanoura,
as the tide flows in,
the sandbanks disappear,
toward the reedy shore,
the cranes fly crying