Process:
The creation of this structure started off by watching a video on street art and understanding that street art is more than just tagging a building. We then had to look up some street/sculptural artists who were of interest to us. For me, they were Kunhiko Kasahara, Robert J. Lang, and Buddhist Monks. Since they all focused on origami, I decided to create an origami structure as my final project based on what was meaningful to me. First, I took a 16’x16’ piece of paper and folded it into the shape of a crane. Next, I paper mâchéd the entire crane and left it to dry for two full days. Once the crane was dry, I spray painted it white and attached it to a foam base. Lastly, I made mini origami cranes and attached them to the giant crane.
Purpose:
Street art has always been seen as an act of defiance, and this unfair negative connotation does not do this media any justice. Street art grasps the viewer's attention while portraying a message. You may think that this is the same with any form of art, but that is far from the truth since street art targets the general public and forces them to open their eyes to see things that were unbeknownst to them. The purpose of this project was to open our eyes to a media that has always been looked down on as well as to have the opportunity to walk in the shoes of an artist so we could create a form of art that embodies the purpose of street art.
Analysis:
Creating an eight-foot structure purely out of paper and metal rods proved to be a significant challenge, but the outcome was worth it. Given that the point of street art is to grab hold of its audience and force them to stop their daily lives for a few minutes and take the time to examine the meaning of the sculpture, I knew that if I were to keep my structure a foot tall, it would not get the time of day. With that in mind, I decided to create a massive structure that would grab the attention of everyone who passed by and I believe that I was able to achieve that. I was trying to raise awareness of the fact that 13.7 million birds die each day. The death of these creatures is overlooked because you see them fly freely with no care in the world and we don’t stop to think that environmental changes together with other calamities have a significant impact on them. I tried to convey my message by putting a large metal rod through the head of the bird to literally show the death of birds, and I attached a reasonably significant amount of origami birds towards the first half of the bird while making the latter scarce to portray the death of the birds more abstractly. All in all, while the message was a little hard to understand, I feel like this project adhered to the purpose. The massive structure demands those just strolling by to not just glance but to take the time to ponder the meaning of the structure, or at least read the posted note which explains the reason for this creation.
