PHOTOS: The Modern Art of Origami

By Tristin Zhang, July 4, 2016

When the subject of origami is mentioned, most people think of flapping birds and children’s toys. While that’s certainly where the craft began, it has since been developed into an intricate and demanding aesthetic form. From mammoths, dragons and unicorns to facsimiles of Predator, Yoda and Snoopy, the modern art of origami has introduced a realm of unlimited possibilities and fragile beauty.

Beyond visual pleasure, its techniques have also been applied in the fields of mathematics and engineering. For instance, origami has been used to perfect automotive airbag deployment and space telescopes.

Stretching back to the Tokugawa period (1603-1868) in Japan, origami was originally a kiddy diversion. The well-known paper crane figure is a classic example; easy to fold and taking less than five minutes to mold in experienced hands. You would think that for something which has been around for hundreds of years, everything that could have been done with it would have been done with it.

However, it was raised to a new level of ingenuity in the last century by Japanese origamist Akira Yoshizawa, who created hundreds of thousands of new models. His most significant contribution was ‘wet folding,’ a technique that employs water to make manipulations of the paper easier. Objects assembled through wet folding have a sculptural finish to them, and it was this that helped reshape public perceptions of origami as an art form.

A sword-wielding angel.

Today, with the help of computer programming, origami has developed in a more technical sense. Using math and engineering principles to formulate crease patterns (based on which the paper is folded) allows artists to devise complicated human effigies and multi-scaled snakes.

Still, the reason for origami’s appeal remains the same as ever: the inventive way a single sheet of paper can be transformed, by dexterous folding alone, into everything from a dragon to the grim reaper.

Zhang Chi is a freelance designer based in Panyu, Guangzhou. He developed his paper-craft hobby at a young age. In 2006, through a Chinese bulletin board system called Tianya Forum, he first learned about the non-cut models of modern Japanese origami done via wet folding. He has been practicing the skill ever since.

When Zhang started, people in China were replicating origami patterns designed and published online by foreign enthusiasts. Zhang was initially the same, but unlike those who took pleasure in following in the creases of others, he was creative and insightful enough to learn how to make his own templates. The results have been acclaimed by his peers.

Here are some of Zhang’s phenomenal origami models, all of which required days of complex designing and folding:

A Japanese elf.