Purranque 2007

Next weekend in the small twon of Purranque will be the Second Chilean Origami Convention, prepared by the people of Origami Chile. I have always practiced paper folding as a self-taught and lonely discipline, in despite of having news of the chilean gang since a year, mostly because my constant travels, lectures, drinking journeys and family dinners. But finally I decided to go this year and participate. Humbly I will fold and show three models in the main exhibition (is that what means participating, don't think so?).

These three figures represents perfectly what I understand for origami: the Perry Bailey's squirrel, the Stephen O'Hanlon's Panda bear and the Anibal Voyer's horse model. The three of them acomplish the three fundamental commandments that for me a perfect origami figure should have:

1. Be simple. That is: not thousand of foldings, one over the others, in a way to force you the usage of extremely thin and resistant papers. Any figure should be possible with a regular piece of natural paper.

2. Be expressive. Beyond the realism of the model, if she is designed with talent, if it is capable of exploiding inocently the abstraction human potencial, she will get his empathy and play, waking his feellings. Origami is a play, expressivity is reached on memories, not on reason or logic.

3. Be self-sufficient. They are expressive units which don't need anymore his author or an interpretative school, it stand on its own legs and watch us with an own sense and life. The origami figure also watch you.

This is my folding of the Voyer's horse which I'll present in my corner. Is not perfect, I'm still a rookie. Details as the hoofs definetly needs more work and patience. I had to use (reluctantly) for the first time metallic paper, in order to preserve the model for the trip and the aging effects that days do to the simple models (I like them, origami should be a brief metaphor of Life and its works)