Origami is an ancient Japanese art, with which many of us met as a child, folding small boxes, cranes or sailing ships from paper. However, for some, it has remained a memory from the past, for others it has become a matter of all life. The age-old art tradition is supported and developed by modern masters, expanding the usual ideas about what can be created from paper. Meet 11 talented artists and their amazing works, which raised origami to a qualitatively higher level.
1. Sifo Mabona
Like many of us, Sifo Mabona learned about origami in his childhood, having once folded an airplane from a sheet of paper. Since then, the craving for the creation of paper figures has not left him. Mabon completely devoted himself to art, and now he is recognized as one of the most talented and promising origami masters in the world. Whether a Swiss artist with a South African roots creates figures of life-sized animals or installs of monetary bills affecting social issues, he invariably intrigues the viewer and encourages him to reflect.
2. Robert Lang
Once Robert Lang was a laser physicist, but at a certain stage of his life he decided to quit his job and devote himself to origami, which until then was just a hobby for him. Outstanding abilities and love of art made him one of the most respected artists in his field. In his work, Lang uses mathematical laws, due to which he gets complex and elegant works.
His skills the artist tries to apply for practical purposes. So, Robert Lang developed a scheme of folding airbags for one of the German companies and participated in the creation of a space telescope at the Livermore National Laboratory. With its help it was possible to place a huge lens in a small rocket so that in space it could turn around without appearing on it folds and marks.
3. Goran Kondjevod
Croatian mathematician and programmer Goran Kondjevod lays amazingly graceful multi-layer sculptures in origami technique since 2005. His creations from the wrong figures look original due to their abstract forms. Such unusual sculptures the master makes, using natural tension in paper.
4. Eric and Martin Demain
The artist and mathematician Martin Demain and his son Erik are known for their incredibly lush origami with a folded structure. Masters skillfully manipulate the paper, folding it into vortex curved shapes that seem to "feel alive."
In addition to collaborating with his father, Erik Demain, who received the academic title of professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, explores the possibilities of using origami in architecture, robotics and molecular biology.
5. Hoang Tian Kyet
Artist from Vietnam Hoang Tien Kiet prefers an extremely complex technique of origami - wet folding. In his work he uses water, which makes the dense paper more pliable and allows to get folds of a rounded shape. The result of the painstaking work of the master is the unusually realistic figures of animals.
6. Jeanine Moseley
Janine Moseley, who received her Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, turns to non-traditional materials in art - business cards. Her most famous work was the Menger sponge, a mathematical fractal created by dividing all cube faces into 9 squares and then removing the central part from each of them and from the faces of smaller cubes. Its manufacture required 11 years of labors and 66,000 business cards. Later, the artist finished another three-dimensional fractal, called "Snowflake Moseley".
7. Jang Dean
Origami Jang Din became famous for his perfect lines and graceful forms. Smooth bends of the sculptures of the Vietnamese master, resembling sea waves, and white paper, which he often uses in his work, create exciting and at the same time pacifying images that can charm any spectator.
8. Biria Loper
Biria Loper is relatively young compared to other recognized origami gurus. The artist is only 21 years old, but he has already achieved tremendous success. Inspired by the works of Tom Hull and other eminent masters, Loper began to make original designs and models of paper from college, most of which are formed of geometric forms connected together.
9. Mademoiselle Maurice
Modern artist installers often use the power of origami to achieve impressive results. An application to ancient art and Mademoiselle Maurice was applied. The French artist creates her street installations from many simple origami.
In 2016, Mademoiselle Maurice conducted a series of seminars in the psychotherapeutic center of Ain, during which patients and medical workers helped her in the making of paper figures. Later they became an ornament for the chapel.
10. Jackie Simons
Designer Jackie Simons uses origami to create massive immersive installations. Her creations, as a rule, consist of many repeating elements and look impressive. Whether the artist creates a wave of 2500 boxes or hangs 5,000 fish for the Chinese New Year, she remains an unsurpassed master in working with paper that can stun and delight.
11. James Roper
For his installation of "Devotion" James Roper produced 10,000 bright colors in origami technique. Inspired by the Manchester artist for a long, painstaking work, the Japanese legend, according to which it is necessary to put together 1000 cranes to fulfill the wish. James Roper turned colored paper sheets into lilies for three years, thereby demonstrating a truly uncommon devotion to art.