"RUBY, DID YOU SEE THE VENEZUELAN PAVILION?"

Yes, yes I did. As a matter of fact, I sketched out just how to re-make the work from the Venezuelan Pavilion.

  

Solaris, from the Venezuelan Pavilion at the Biennale Di Venezia 2011

During my trip, we had the chance to explore the Biennale di Venezia, a contemporary art exhibition that takes place in venues all around Venice once every two years. One of the main centers for this event is Giardini, a park which houses numerous national pavilions where different countries display their works. After a morning of exploration by myself and meeting back up with my classmates, everyone asked "Ruby, did you see the Venezuelan Pavilion?" Of course I saw it! It was beautiful, and it was grand, and I want to have a room in my house one day solely for a large paper installation like it. The windows in the room were perfect, casting shadows off of the mountain and valley folds in just the right way. So there I was in the exhibit, my nose three inches from the paper, studying and sketching the crease pattern as other visitors sat back to enjoy it from afar.

 

With my trusty sketches, I have been able to re-make the crease pattern and one day when I have enough money for a big role of paper, I'll be able to make one too! Until then, I'm just using some scraps of brown paper stolen from the metal shop. It does the job pretty well. Next time I'll get a bigger piece.

It was hard to find the artist. His name is Yoshi and his style is just my cup of tea. He uses crease patterns that don't quite follow a grid, so it's not exactly a tessellation, but the geometry of them are similar. The way his folds allow the pieces to expand and contract and warp into interesting forms really gets me. I think I will start experimenting with this style. (Check out his Flickr, there's some great stuff there!)