Paper Creatures

The Old Jaffa Museum is one of my favourite small galleries. There often seems to be something that interests me there, from Dolls Art to The International Exhibition of Contemporary Paper. You can imagine my delight when I read about their current exhibition, "Paper Creatures", an exhibition curated by the artist and designer, and one of the founders of OASIS – the Origami Artists of Israel organization, Ilan Garibi.

"Paper Creatures" features works by 32 paper and origami artists from around the world, including exhibitors from France, Spain, Portugal, Ireland, Japan, Vietnam, Russia and the United States, as well as some impressive contributions from Israel. The works come from several paper-based disciplines including origami, papercuts, quilling, collage, paper sculpture and pop-up. 

The main theme of the exhibition is not paper, but rather creatures. The artists have transformed their inner world, words and thoughts into spectacular works depicting monsters, strange animals and fairies. Their cultural and historical backgrounds are sometimes apparent too. American-born Patrick Gannon's artworks of cut-paper and wood bring together his life and experience in urban Japan with his upbringing on a farm in New Jersey, where he was surrounded by nature. Suhail Shaikh, an expat Indian papercutter who works in 3D, was as a child shown by his grandmother how to make shapes out of waste material like cardboard boxes and paper. He has transformed his childhood fascination for paper-modelling into the full-time profession of paper art, moving on to representations of his impressions of objects or events.

All the exhibitors are clearly dedicated to their craft and, when up close to the works, one really begins to appreciate the amount of effort and skill that went into producing the intricate pieces. There were many pieces that I particularly loved, notably Julianna Szabo's lizard-like creature and her colourful Phoenix, both inspired by her love of nature, and Madrid-born Victor Coeurjoly's deer-like animal Cierbol (Deer Tree) with its very distinctive lines. Polly Verity, an artist based in Devon, England, exhibited her Beetle-Winged Moondog, Pegasus and Sphinx, below. Her amazingly intricate sculptures are constructed from silver wire bases and then covered them with acid-free paper with folded paper inserts, so that they are a little see-through. The results are both beautiful and unique.

Beth Johnson created her mythical creatures especially for the exhibition. She sketched out her own figures on paper and the origami designs, above, grew from there. There were some names that I recognised. I was already a big fan of Wolfram Kampffmeyer's Paperwolf label, under which he creates and sells both finished sculptures and DIY papercraft kits. His passion is creating new paper sculptures with realistic expressions. Most of his sculptures are of living animals, but a few are either extinct or never existed. All of his creatures are designed on the computer in 3D, and then virtually unfolded flat and then cut out of paper.

The Old Jaffa Museum is located in an ancient building from the 13th century, the Saraya House, which served as a government house during the Ottoman rule. The combination of impressive old architecture, aesthetic arches, niches and pristine white walls, adds an extra dimension to the exhibition.

A good friend commented once she had seen my photos of the exhibition, "You must have been beyond yourself with glee at that exhibition. Looks fab!"

It was.

"Paper Creatures" is due to run until Saturday 29th October 2016.
Museum opening hours: Friday: 10:00-14:00 • Saturday: 10:00-18:00

Sunday-Thursday the museum is open to groups of 20 or more visitors – by appointment.
During holidays the museum will be open on all week days, from 10:00 to 18:00
Holiday eves, and the eves of Yom Kippur and Sukkot – the museum is closed.
Place: The Old Jaffa Museum, 10 Mifratz Shlomo st., Old Jaffa, Israel
Tel: 03-6813624

* This post has been shared on Our World Tuesday and Wednesday Around the World.

International Exhibition of Contemporary Paper Art

I was really very excited to read about the International Exhibition of Contemporary Paper Art at the Old Jaffa Museum. I like that particular museum a lot, having visited several times previously, most recently last summer for the Dolls Art exhibition. The museum is located in the "Ancient Saraya", an old governmental Ottoman house, and is relatively small but quite lovely! Of course I was going to visit again for the paper exhibition.

The Contemporary Paper Art exhibition is advertised as the first of its kind in Israel. The exhibition brings together 30 world-renowned paper masters, displaying "crumpled" works by the French artist Vincent Floderer, as well as creations by the artist and mathematician Martin L. Demaine and his son, Professor Erik Demaine. In addition, Dr. Robert Lang, one of the developers of car airbags, displays works of art created by hundreds of folds of paper. I was particularly enamoured with his Poison Dart Frog, below. The exhibition, curated by artist Paul Jackson, also hosts the German artist Heinz Strobl and his works made from folded strips of paper hundreds of metres long, as well as other leading and respected artists from Japan, Europe, the USA and Israel.

The exhibition showcases the unlimited possibilities of paper art in the most wonderful way. "Paper is all around us", the curator's introduction read, "but we don't look at it. We touch it, but we don't feel it. It is our ever-present servant, essential but invisible, humble but dignified... It is all-but excluded from the list of respected artists' materials, such as stone clay, metal and wood." But that's how it used to be. A growing number of artists have adopted paper as their primary material and have begun to create vibrant folded, cut and crumpled work that is finding an enthusiastic public. Myself amongst them.

There were so many pieces that I fell in love with at the exhibition. Melina Hermsen's "Tessellations" just blew me away. Melina, from Germany, is one of an exciting new generation of tessellation artists who take the traditional pattern-making techniques and add a creative flair. My absolute favourite piece was the lion cub, below, which I would more than happily hang on my wall at home.

Anne Rudanovski's huge pleated disk created from one sheet of paper, above, was initially part of a larger installation of many disks. This piece will disassemble and fold into a small box, rather like the closing of an umbrella.

The modular origami lamps of Tomoko Fuse from Japan, below, are created from one sheet of folded, uncut paper. She is considered by many as a renowned master in origami.

There were papercuts too. Noa Yekutieli's "Behind the Human" hand cut papercut is based on an ongoing series of pieces titled "Summer 2014" which are based on ruins from "Operation Protective Edge" and deal with the physical and human emotional destruction that are a result of the ongoing conflict in Israel. One side of the piece shows the destruction and the shared reality of the individuals that are sometimes forgotten behind this catastrophe. The second side reveals a subjective personal moment. The cut out paper from the side depicting the destruction pile up as ruins and symbolises how time will blind the human ability to remember. It does not tell a story of a person, a party, a side, or a house, but is a metaphor of a universal distress resulting from war and conflict.

Each visitor to the exhibition receives a small sheet of origami paper with the entrance ticket. A large screen within the exhibition area demonstrates the art of origami with detailed instructions, allowing visitors to have a go at the art form. My son made a delightful swan, with a little help from Mum.
The exhibition's curator Paul Jackson has been a professional artist since 1982. His paper folding sculptures are displayed in museums and galleries around the world. He has published over thirty books on paper art, and created many commercial projects. Nowadays he teaches at the Shenkar School of Engineering and Design, one of the leading colleges in Israel.

Jordy and Daniel

We had a lovely Passover break. We went hiking, met with friends visiting from the UK, and went to see the absolutely delightful "Paddington" at the cinema. We definitely did less than previous years, but the boys are getting older and have their own plans. Our one family day out together, hiking along the coast in northern Israel, was just wonderful. I will organise the photos to show you in another post. In the meantime, here are a couple more customised cards made for some recent birthdays.

Sweet little Jordy was turning two. Her auntie told me that she loves wearing fairy dresses and in fact sent me a photo of the birthday girl wearing this pink and green dress that had once belonged to her big sister. Jordy also enjoys playing with building blocks, and loves the Australian television show Playschool and the Australian children's music group The Wiggles. A few flowers to match the fairy dress, and a big red number 2 finished the card off nicely. 

Daniel was celebrating his ninth birthday. Last year I showed him as a young scientist, with a white coat and test tubes in his pockets. This year Mum revealed that he enjoys basketball, playing the piano, and creating shapes and figures from origami, some of which I integrated into the design of his birthday card. Mum also asked me to show him wearing his favourite grey cap. She later told me that Daniel "loved his card".

Ariel's Album

Ariel was born in the same hospital and the day before my own son. Ariel's parents were the first people to come and say hello after I had given birth and in fact it was Ariel's parent's who introduced Mister Handmade in Israel and I! With all this history I was therefore very happy to create an album for his Bar Mitzvah on his Mum's request.

Ariel, she told me, is a competitive swimmer. He loves dogs, apparently does amazing card tricks, plays the guitar, has a Kindle and loves cooking pizza. He also has a cheerful smile!

I decided to show him wearing his white swim t-shirt with the JO - Junior Olympics 2013 - badge, which he received for swimming in that particular meet. Ariel has goggles on his head, a fan of cards in one hand and his dream guitar in the other. You can just see the colourful red and orange of his favourite kippa (skullcap) on top of his head. A Kindle can be seen to one side of him, as well as his yummy home cooked pizza. On the other side a dog is keeping him company.

The Hebrew lettering on the cover displays his name, the word "Bar Mitzvah" and the date of the ceremony.

I decorated a few pages inside the album too. Each page has a tallit (a Jewish prayer shawl) on it. In addition, the first page was devoted to Ariel's interest in fishing and has a rod and a little orange fish on it. Then I added another guitar - the one he apparently dreams about getting - and a picture of Ariel swimming. Next I created some teeny tiny origami pieces - another interest of his - and finally devoted a page to his tefillin (also called phylacteries from the Ancient Greek phylacterion, meaning "to guard, protect") because Jewish boys start wearing them one to two months before their thirteenth Hebrew birthday.

Ariel and his family are currently living in the U.S. but came home to Israel to celebrate his Bar Mitzvah. When she saw the album I had made for Ariel, his Mum sent me a wonderful message telling me that she thought it was amazing!

It was fabulous, 13 years on, to hear Ariel read in the synagogue and then to be able to celebrate both our boy's Bar Mitzvah's together. An expression that Jewish people often use when saying goodbye to each other after a happy event is Rak B'smachot ("only on joyous occasions"). It refers to our wish to be able to see our family and friends only at celebrations and preferably not during sad times. That saying seems an appropriate way to close this post. May we all only meet on Bar Mitzvahs!

Gilad's Album

Remember Gilad's invitation? Well, this is Gilad's album, which he took to his Bar Mitzvah party for all his guests to write in. His Mum told me that he loves drawing, bike riding, origami and daydreaming so, just like on his invitation, I showed him doing all those things. He is dressed for his Bar Mitzvah ceremony too, with his kippa (skullcap) on his head and a tallit (a Jewish prayer shawl) over his shoulders.

I either put a Star of David or a tallit as a graphic element on the corner of my Bar Mitzvah album covers and on each embellished page inside. Gilad's Mum decided to go for the blue and white striped tallit, below.

The tallit is a garment Jewish men wear during prayer. Tallit is an Aramaic word from the root tll / טלל meaning 'to cover over'. By wrapping yourself in the tallit, or by covering your head with it, it is believed that the intention and direction of your prayers can be enhanced.

The tallit is striped simply because that was the fashion in Greece and Rome in the Biblical period. However, the stripes remind us of the strand of techelet (blue) once worn as part of the tzitzit, the special knotted fringes attached to the tallit's four corners. The Torah commands that tzitzit contain a thread of techelet.
"Blue is like sea,
Sea is like sky
Sky is like the Throne of the Lord." - from the Talmud, the basic book of Jewish law.
The dye used for this blue colour came from an animal called the chilazone, thought to have either been a squid or a type of snail.

So, I decorated each page of Gilad's album with a tallit and a small illustration of each of his hobbies. Above you can see the page which shows his love of drawing, then, clockwise from top left, his passion for bike riding, reading, daydreaming and origami.

Gilad came to collect the album himself and seemed thrilled with it. His Mum later wrote and said "the album is just stunning... love it. Thanks so much."

Wow! What a great customer she was.

Gilad's Invitation

Several years ago I met a lovely lady when our sons went to the same English class. She is a talented crafter herself and, after regularly chatting whilst waiting for our boys, we soon connected over facebook. I know that she reads my blog regularly and so was delighted when she wrote to me to commission a design for a Bar Mitzvah invitation and an album for her son.

Her son, she told me, loves drawing, bike riding, origami and daydreaming! His favourite colour is green, like the green English countryside, and, what she thought I might not have noticed (I hadn't!) is that on the left side of his hair he has a small blond wisp... kind of like a feather!

My customer wanted the invitation design to have a Bar Mitzvah theme but, aside from that, was happy to leave me to come up with something suitable. My favourite kind of customer!

I decided to show the Bar Mitzvah boy, Gilad, wearing a kippa (skullcap) on his head and a tallit (a Jewish prayer shawl) over his shoulders. He is holding a book and some pencils in one hand, and an origami swan in the other. The facebookers amongst you may well remember the teeny-weeny origami swan, above, which I posted on my page whilst working on the design. Gilad's black bike, with a yellow stripe on it, is also shown in the background and he is daydreaming about being 13!
Finally, this particular customer chose to keep all the wording in English which made for a good, clean design. She kept 'our project' a secret until I had finished the artwork but wrote to tell me that her son was thrilled when he saw it. "Amazing" she said "[I've] just showed Gilad and he loves it! Thanks so much!".
The invitations were beautifully printed on white cardstock, below, and their guests seemed to like them.
I made Gilad an album for the Bar Mitzvah party too but that is going to have to wait for another post. Look out for it!