HANGING CRANES
with Parisa Radmanesh, Ian Wylie + Kate Zago
Starting as an activity to kill time when it was blizzarding outside, a group of friends decided to fold as many origami cranes as they could over the course of a snowy weekend in the mountains. But what would we do with all these cranes? In Japanese folklore, folding a thousand origami cranes can grant wishes, happiness and eternal good luck. We may not have folded quite a thousand, but we wanted to share this beautiful sentiment with our beloved home and all of its many residents. One by one, we hung the cranes to a large piece of netting. This netting was then able to create a magical canopy, transforming an otherwise dark, dingy scaffolding container in Victoria Park. We were pleased to see users taking a crane or two for themselves as they passed through the corridor, bringing a small piece of good luck and fortune home with them. We even received some words of encouragement from the construction company managing the site, who agreed to leave the netting up until he cranes were gone. To this day, the friends who spent a weekend folding cranes together continue to practice origami during times of stress as a means of focusing and calming down. The gift that was originally intended for others has unexpectedly come full circle back to the community who envisioned it.