‘oritsunagumono’ by takayuki hori

‘oritsunagumono’ (translated as ‘things folded and connected’) is a collection of origami works by artist takayuki hori, created to highlight the environmental threat of pollution to a number of species native to japan’s coastal waterways.

each translucent sheet is first printed with either the images of fragments of an animal’s skeleton, or, on some pages, human-made discarded objects that are often ingested by the animals in the wild. using the ancient tradition of folded paper, hori assembles the pages into a three-dimensional model. once the paper is folded, the printed components are united as a whole, telling the visual story of the animal’s plight to survive in an increasingly polluted and hazardous ecosystem.

full view of one of the assembled works

while the animal skeletons appear as x-ray images, the garbage they ingest is frequently highlighted in colour

model of a turtle

exhibition view of ‘oritsunagumono’

each assembled piece is displayed below the printing diagram as it appears prior to cutting and folding

closer view

diagram of the printed components

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