In 2013, the Demaines also created their Destructors series. These sculptures depart in a new direction artistically from earlier series by combining folded paper with printed text to create a relationship between folded paper sculpture and works of literature. As in their earlier series, the sculptures are modular combinations of three or more interacting sheets of paper, but the sheets were printed with overlapping pages from Graham Greene’s “The Destructors” (1954), the short story that inspired the 2001 film Donnie Darko. To create this series, the artists cut each sheet into a circle with a circular hole, scored centric circular creases and folded the circles by hand, alternating between mountains and valleys. Once the paper had found its natural equilibrium, they “wove” the pieces together by squeezing one piece to fit inside the hole of another. Then, they let the pieces relax into a natural resting state and glued them to prevent shifting. The result is an unreadable book, echoing the central tenet of the story that “destruction after all is a form of creation.”
In their newest series, QR Series (2014–15), readability, this time of computer code, is again distorted, but with a much lighter touch. Circular sheets are printed with a black-and-white QR code pattern that originally read “Folding Error” when the paper was flat. By folding the sheets, they create a beautiful sculpture, but they also destroy the code—and with it the error message. In this clever new series, we can see all the key elements of the Demaines’ extraordinary father–son artistic partnership—aesthetic grace and balance in the swirling design of the sculptures, mathematical and technological sophistication in the printed code pattern and the continued evolution of their curved folding technique, and a wry sense of humor that will ensure the Demaines many more years of creativity to come.
0261c (from the Earthtone series)
Erik and Martin Demaine, USA 2012, Canson Mi-Teintes watercolor paper (Photo by the artists)
0316-02 (from the Ocean series)
Erik and Martin Demaine, Canada/USA 2012, Canson Mi-Teintes watercolor paper (Photo by the artists)
Martin and Erik Demaine in their studio
(Photo courtesy of the artists)
simplicity and serenity
IN THE ORIGAMI OF GIANG DINH
Photo by the artist
Dinh Truong Giang, known better as Giang Dinh (b.1966), is a Vietnamese artist living in the United States whose stylized figures of humans, animals and faces are among the most lyrical and spiritual of today’s origami art works. The spiritualism in his work is often Buddhist in inspiration, but in many of his works unidentifiable human figures are simply praying or dreaming or dancing. They could be Buddhist monks, Christian priests or Sufi mystics seeking a connection with the Divine. Although folded from paper and with a minimalist approach that renders them semi-abstract in style, Dinh’s figures, even his animals, are astonishingly expressive. Using a few well-placed folds, he is able to evoke exuberance, melancholy and even humor. In both the Zen-like simplicity of his folding style and the choice of Buddhist subjects for some of his work, we sense in his origami figures a serenity and a reverence for spiritual ideals, practices and beliefs that is rare in the often scientific and mathematical world of origami.
Born in 1966 in Hue in central Vietnam, Dinh spent his childhood in Vietnam. Although not a practicing Buddhist, he and his family do occasionally worship the Buddha in their home, and he has memories of family friends who were Buddhist monks and of visits to pagodas when he was a child in Hue. Dinh studied architecture in Vietnam and moved to the United States in 1989, where he continued his architectural studies. In 1998, he started creating origami, and for the last couple of decades he has been working as an architect, painter and origami artist. In all areas of his artistic work, he embraces simplicity and elegance. But it is in the realm of origami where Dinh is a true innovator.
Unlike most origami artists who use thin custom-made origami paper that can be folded many times, Dinh chooses to use thicker paper, such as watercolor paper, which is much harder to fold. However, once folded, this heavier paper will hold the slightest fold and allow him to model semi-abstract forms that are at once simple and highly expressive. Dinh compares the crisp, sharp folds that define many origami sculptures to drawings rendered in ink. By choosing to softly—and sometimes only partially—fold his pieces, he instead evokes the softer and more subtle lines of a pencil drawing. This thoughtful approach to folding often produces animal and human figures that are gentle and meditative, such as the figure White (2011), a simple, elegant female figure who almost appears to have been carved from marble or alabaster.
Dinh is highly admired by many in the origami community and beyond for his ability to convey the essence of a creature or person in just a few gentle folds, in the same way that a Zen ink painting can depict the essence of a monk or a monkey with just a few well-placed brush strokes. Typically, Dinh works in plain white paper in order to concentrate on the pure form and shadow of the work. Many of his works are wet folded, a technique developed in the mid-twentieth century that involves moistening the paper slightly in order to smooth down points and angles and create more naturalistic, sculptural forms. Whereas many origami artists tend to fold animals, abstract forms and geometric patterns, Giang Dinh has excelled in creating human figures engaged in dancing, praying or even taking flight as they transform into angels. All of his works—his animals, humans and deities—radiate a warm and gentle spirit that he seems to have released from the paper through the act of folding. His bears, in particular his lonely looking Polar Bear (2011), evoke a great empathy in the viewer for a majestic beast whose existence is threatened by human activity.
Bukan and Tiger
Giang Dinh, Vietnam/USA 2007, handmade paper (Photo by the artist)
Dreamer
Giang Dinh, Vietnam/USA Designed 2010, folded 2014, watercolor paper (Photo by the artist)
White
Giang Dinh, Vietnam/USA 2011, watercolor paper (Photo by the artist)
Fly
Giang Dinh, Vietnam/USA 2010, watercolor paper (Photo by the artist)
To describe his artistic process, Dinh has quoted Antoine de Saint Exupéry, who wrote, “Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.” This perfection through simplicity is exquisitely apparent in his work Prayer (2010), in which he employs a few simple folds to create the image of a robed figure praying, the most tightly folded element of the form being the hands clasped in prayer. “You can say that the simplicity aspect of my work is inspired by Zen’s art and philosophy. I love Haiku,” admits Dinh. However, he also points out other artistic influences. “I love the works of Brancusi, Henry Moore, Isamu Noguchi....” In another work, Dreamer (designed 2010, folded 2014), a semi-abstracted figure is seated in the lotus position, apparently in meditation,