Origami paper design
Design with repeating shapes
Karen Logan, Artist in Residence
24 October 2004
11.00 – 13.00 and 14.00 – 17.00
17 November 2004
14.00 – 17.00 and 18.30 – 21.00
23 November 2004
11.00 – 13.00 and 14.00 – 17.00
In the Studio, off Room 17 (Renaissance 1400-1600)
Visual artist Karen Logan created her own work at the V&A for a week during the Christopher Dresser exhibition. She explored Dresser's work and the Japanese design which inspired him. During this residency Karen's V&A studio was open to visitors on the three days above.
On the first day of her residency Karen spent time in the Christopher Dresser exhibition making drawings of some of his botanical works and started exploring ideas of plant forms and repeat patterns.
For the open studio session on Sunday 24 October she started preliminary work. Karen used Dresser's plant structure diagrams and transferred the drawings to origami paper. The use of origami paper was inspired by Dresser's visit to Japan. Karen experimented with basic origami folding, then cut the plant structure patterns out of the paper and refolded it. This gave a lacy effect which Karen intends to explore further with larger sheets of Japanese paper.
Karen has continued to use Dresser's botanical studies and designs. The first major piece used a textile design of repeating plant and flower patterns which she copied and transferred to a large sheet of handmade paper which has a small flower print.
The whole sheet was covered with the repeating design. It was cut so that some of the shapes would hang from the sheet when it was held up, but none of the shapes are completely cut out – there is always a small join in the paper. This careful and meticulous cutting took several hours to complete. The piece is best seen when folded and in bright light to create strong shadows.
The next piece uses another Dresser design with plants and birds. Again, Karen enlarged this design and used it as the pattern to cut into paper. This time she used a strong, transparent tracing paper. Some of the lines of the design were scored rather than cut, leaving a white line to contrast with the opaque paper. As before, some of the shapes are designed to fall or stand out from the main sheet, and it is shown folded or rolled to allow the shapes to stand out.
This piece uses a drawing Karen made in the exhibition, of one of Dresser's botanical studies. The paper is a thick, waxed stencil paper, and the design is repeated three times. It is rolled to show the cast shadows inside the paper. It works best when shown in strong light from different directions to get a variety of shadows.
The latest piece goes back to the earliest experiments, using Dresser's plant structure diagrams which Karen first used in the origami pieces. She is using a fine piece of Japanese paper, echoing Dresser's influences from that country.
Artist's Statement
As Artist in Residence it was my role to respond to the exhibition. Dresser's manufactures and designs contained a myriad of potential starting-off points, and at first I found this quite overwhelming. After spending time viewing his work, particular areas of his life and practice began to stand out as the focus of my interest, namely his early botanical studies, his wallpaper designs in relation to these studies, and his visit to Japan in 1876–7, the first tour of the country by a European designer.
I began my own exploration by carefully sketching Dresser's botanical drawings. This process helped me to connect with Dresser. Visible on the drawing's surface were pencil lines, carefully and exactly plotted as the 'skeleton' to support his illustration of the growth structures of plants. These marks interested me, giving clues to his working process and skill. He used these drawings as aids during his lectures on botany.
In the studio I began to explore basic origami. I folded the paper, unfolded it and transferred my copied botanical studies in pencil. I then cut these intricate patterns into the paper with a scalpel and refolded. Sprigs and stems began to pop up in the folding – the paper appeared to be alive somehow, and growing. From these explorations I worked on large–scale papers while keeping the scale of the patterns small. I transferred more botanical studies and repeated wallpaper designs onto handmade Japanese and Indian papers, as well as heavy tracing paper and waxed stencil paper. When laid flat the work looked rather dull, but it came to life while being handled; leaves and stalks poked out, casting shadows upon the paper's surface that were animated by touch.
This opportunity not only opened up the life and work of the remarkable Christopher Dresser to me, but also allowed me to experiment with unfamiliar techniques. The viewers of this process – visitors to the V&A – were interested and positive in response to my explorations, and I would like to thank the V&A for this valuable opportunity.
