This striking and beautiful collection of paper cranes is on display in the glasshouse foyer of Edinburgh's Botanical Gardens.
The birds are not purely decorative, however, as each one is in fact a letter, written by a child. The project from which they took flight was based on the Scottish Enlightenment when "letter-writing and public debate was abundant" and when communication was slower and more considered than it often is today, but which was nonetheless a 'transformational' time.
In a workshop on reflection and transformation, each child was asked to write a private letter saying something they sincerely wanted to say but for which they had not had the time or the inclination to put on paper. Later, the letters were folded to make cranes, a traditional symbol of transformation.
Maybe this is just the thing for new year resolutions?
More on the art of paper folding here.
Those are beautiful and that they are made from letters makes them all the more special.
Posted by: Jennifer | 16 January 2010 at 03:11 PM
I don't make "New Year's" resolutions any more. I rarely (never) kept to them and it struck me as akin to making "To Do" lists; essentially a displacement activity rather than actually doing things. This is not to belittle the letters you show above, nor the undeniable beauty of the overall artwork but to urge against seeing the new year as somehow special from this perspective. Make resolutions to do things differently (or resolve to stay true to something) whenever it is appropriate.
Bet you no one else will agree with me!
Posted by: Dark Puss | 16 January 2010 at 03:13 PM
Oh this is beautiful, both the sentiment and the artwork. I love making paper cranes and have always meant to make some to hang as a mobile for one of the children's rooms. Perhaps that should be my resolution...
Posted by: Rebecca | 16 January 2010 at 04:11 PM
How beautiful. They make anything devised by Damien Hirst look like what Sir Alan Sugar might call "old tut!"
Posted by: Margaret Powling | 16 January 2010 at 06:30 PM
Indeed this is lovely - both the artwork and the children's project.
Posted by: Choclette | 16 January 2010 at 07:25 PM
Beautiful idea. I wonder if the cranes will be opened one day.
Posted by: Karen | 17 January 2010 at 01:58 AM
Margaret, how about his Spin Paintings do you not see any beauty in those at all?
It is interesting how Hirst has become the whipping-boy of modern art in general (I'm not suggesting that you are antipathetic to all modern art of course). My view of Hirst is encapsulated well in this sentence from an on-line article by Andrew Frost.
"What Hirst makes is nothing more, or less, than art. That it is valued by some and detested by others is simply proof that works of art are contested objects whose meaning and monetary value rise and fall on the tides of public taste."
Posted by: Dark Puss | 17 January 2010 at 09:11 AM
Very beautiful especially with their inky darkness and yet full of the thoughts of children.
Posted by: blackbird | 18 January 2010 at 03:03 PM