Medium: Projection Mapping & Animation
Year: 2016
Presented at: CalArts, California

Paper explores the hybridity of culture within an immigrant. As an immigrant of the US, there has been more access to Japanese culture because of the popularity of Japanese pop culture; and I, along with many other youths of Asian descent, began associating various elements of Japanese culture into a collective Southeast Asian and Pacific Islander American culture. One artform from Japanese culture that has always interested me is origami; and I was surprised to learn that origami originated from China. Paper was invented in China, and folded papers were symbolic offerings to the gods and ancestors. During funerals, folded papers are again offered to divinity, and paper is burned as a prayer. In Chinese paper folding, the paper is usually folded into bowls, boats. and geometric shapes; and when the Japanese adopted paper folding and developed origami, representation of elements from the environment became significant, like cranes and other animals. There were also European cultures in the 17th and 18th century that practiced napkin folding, which is still seen today in French and French inspired restaurants. Now, the term origami is used to describe all forms of paper folding, regardless of the form’s origin. In Paper, I created an intimated folded paper environment inside a box placed below eye level. The participants are given 2 cushions next to the boxed environment and they can see a projector a few inches from the environment. In this piece, I am attempting to create a piece that needs the participants to play in order for activation. When one person sits on the cushion, a short animation of a paper’s experience with paper loops inside the boxed environment. The projection loops until the person leaves the cushion.