All creators begin with a blank slate, and in the case of Santa Fe-based artist , he starts with a blank square. His large, structural works mimic the art of origami while using colorful, large sheets of metal.
A set of 18 large sculptures created by Box, his wife Jennifer, and a handful of other collaborators are on display in an exhibition called 鈥溾�� at the Fort Worth Botanic Garden through Feb. 14.
When Box started making art, he didn鈥檛 intend to use origami as his medium.
鈥淚 began with a square piece of paper 鈥� about 20 years ago now,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 thought I鈥檒l start with a square. My name is Box. Use it if you got it, right?鈥�
Instead, he was thinking about something he calls 鈥渢he architecture of the soul鈥� as he tried 鈥� and sometimes failed 鈥� at developing techniques for translating his geometric designs onto metal.
When he first showed his work he couldn鈥檛 get away from the word origami.
鈥淧eople kept saying 鈥極h that looks like origami,鈥� or 鈥楾hat reminds me of origami鈥� and I thought, I鈥檝e never heard of this word,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t wasn鈥檛 something I had studied. I grew up in Oklahoma making paper airplanes like every other kid. I never called it origami.鈥�
If you go
What: Outdoor sculpture exhibition Florigami in the Garden
When: Aug. 19-Feb. 14
Where: Fort Worth Botanic Garden
3220 Botanic Garden Blvd.
Fort Worth, Texas 76107
Admission: to the garden. Free for members. $6-12 nonmembers, depending on age.
He didn鈥檛 make the connection himself until he unfolded some of his own work and saw the similarities between his art and a deconstructed piece of origami. And it wasn鈥檛 until he learned more about the story of 鈥溾�� that he felt truly aligned with the practice.
The historical novel based on the story of popularized the legend of 1,000 paper cranes in the United States. According to the legend, if a person folds 1,000 paper cranes, each of which represents one year of the bird鈥檚 life, their wish will come true.
The young Japanese girl was living in Hiroshima when the United States dropped an atom bomb on the city. She survived the attack, but was diagnosed with leukemia a few years later. She wished to be well again and folded paper cranes throughout her time in the hospital.
Box described grabbing an origami book that someone had given him and sitting down for hours as he attempted to figure it out.
鈥淚 guess I figured it out and I sort of went through this process and 鈥� I could see how I could cast this in the ,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 could see how I could fabricate this using sheet metal.鈥�
As he continued down this path, he grew his team and started collaborating with other artists, including .
Lang is a physicist by trade and has worked with . He uses his mastery of mathematics to come up with intricate designs that create complicated figures using a single sheet.
Their collaboration 鈥淒ear Family鈥� is on display in the Botanic Garden, where visitors will be able to see not just the outline of the animals but details like antlers, ears and eyes.
Each of the sculptures in the exhibition took about one year to complete from design and drafting to fabrication.
CEO and president of the Fort Worth Botanic Garden and the Botanical Research Institute of Texas, Patrick Newman, said that the show is the perfect way to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the center鈥檚 Japanese garden.
鈥淥rigami is so much more than just paper and folds. There is a mental component to it and there is an emotional and spiritual component to it 鈥� and even a physical component as well,鈥� he said. 鈥淎nd this garden is so much more than flowers and butterflies 鈥� so we like that parallel as well.鈥�
For Newman, these sculptures are a symbol not just of the garden鈥檚 history but next. He encouraged people not to think of the exhibition as something you see once, but something that evolves and that you revisit as the seasons change.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 know if you know this, but it鈥檚 hot right now,鈥� Newman joked. 鈥淭here is cooler weather that is coming 鈥� and it will be fun to see how these pieces reflect and respond to the changing landscape.鈥�
Marcheta Fornoff covers the arts for the Fort Worth Report. Contact her at marcheta.fornoff@fortworthreport.org or on . At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy .
This first appeared on and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
