World Peace Project: Hope for Peace
Apr. 14th, 2010 06:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
yeouyaIf anyone would like to link friends/fellow contributors/people who were wondering why you were carrying a crane around to this post, please go ahead!
I hadn't realized I actually first posted about this back at the end of February. O_o Granted, the first two weeks were pretty much just spent on gathering pictures, and most of the real work happened in the last week before Pancake Breakfast, but that is still longer than I thought it was. Funny, since I remember thinking that I had No Time For This when I first decided to do it.
Pancake Breakfast went well overall - a bit chaotic, and for some reason, everyone expected me to know who was working what position in what section of the dining areas (and also to be able to be bussing in three different areas at once). >.> Aside from working two shifts as a busser and contributing to the World Peace art exhibition, I made origami doves to hang from the ceiling as well as smaller doves and peace signs (not origami), so there will be pictures of those as well. Despite the rain, we ended up with almost 500 people in attendance over four hours,
The art piece turned out really well! There are a few things that gave me moments of ARGH, like when the paper warped, and how the kanji are kinda crooked, but generally, I'm very pleased with the end result. So THANK YOU ALL again for your support! ♥♥♥♥♥ I was amazed by the amount of pictures that were sent in, and I loved hearing the little stories that some of you included with them about the places/objects in the photos, or the process of taking them.
So, let's begin! If you want to skip me rambling about how I made the thing, go to the second cut. ;)
---
Initially, as some of you may remember, my idea was to have two pieces, each with a half of kibou (希望 - hope in both Japanese and Chinese) on it over photos of cranes. This idea came about after much pondering of other shapes to put the pictures in - a globe (too hard to cut out the continental outlines; plus, which parts of the world would I feature?), a peace sign, a dove... In the end, roomie and I agreed that using the pictures as a background was probably more space-efficient and easier than trying to fit 1,000 cranes into a certain shape.
(The 1,000 cranes idea also came after the initial crane pic idea, and was a large part of my downfall. XDD)
The initial planning stage pics... from left to right: blank wall, Photoshop with the graphpapery lines on the kanji, wall with paper on, wall with paper on paper on, wall with paper with drawing on, wall with paper with cut-out kanji on, wall with photos on paper with cut-out kanji on!
Somehow, around the time of Spring Break, it became apparent that two foamboards would not be enough since I was now planning to stick 1,000 cranes on the whole collage. Even with the 200-crane strings I have at home, two boards would not be enough (photos of those make up 600 of the 1,000 cranes, I think. Maybe it's 800, 'cause I just can't believe I have almost 400 photos on this thing. XD But I am pretty sure it's 600). So I returned to school with four foamcore boards, for a total working space of 80 x 120 inches.
I re-did the kanji on new paper, and painted them white (which really made the grayness of the butcher paper show up XD):
L to R: the second kanji drawn out, the first kanji propped up against my window, and the finished second one on the floor. Lots of things ended up on my floor... paper, paper scraps, photo scraps, glue, rubber cement...
Then, because I like making lists, I put together Post-Its with the number of each 4x6 picture by color (red, pink, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, silver/gray, "dark," black & white, rainbow, and mixed, which included pics with multiple cranes of different colors), and the number of smaller pictures by color and size (large, medium, small and tiny), so that I could try and get an even number of each color and size on each board. I forgot to take a picture of these, but they are not necessary to see. :P
Anyways, some pics from the first (aka experimental-ish) kanji-ed board:
L to R, top: All the photos in their envelopes by color/size. >.> I had three different groups of photos printed, so there were a bunch; the first board in progress, with some of my color-coded piles visible; the first board with all pictures blu-tacked on.
Bottom row: close-ups!
The blu-tack made it hard to glue the photos down without having to pull them off completely, but still helped a lot for planning, especially with the two kanji-ed boards, where I had to accomodate brushstrokes.
Anyways, more in-progress pics, from all of the boards:
After the two kanji-ed boards were finished, things got much easier. Here are the photos I had left over at that point:
Board #3 (which became Board #4 in the actual presentation):
Board #4 (which became Board #1):
I used an exacto-knife to trim the edges, put the words back on (the glue warped them a bit because of the moisture, but they stuck down pretty well in the end), and put Mod Podge over the whole thing to just cement all the photos more. And I was left with a mess on the floor. XD
I turned the project in, felt vaguely guilty for making such an unwieldy piece while watching people figure out where to put it, and then... Pancake Breakfast was upon us! And my piece, which I titled "Hope for Peace," was up at the backdrop for the makeshift stage we use for the PCB performances.
It was pretty cool to see it up, and kinda fun to know that because it was the backdrop for the stage, everyone who watched the performances saw it. XD On the other hand, it's definitely the sort of piece that I wanted people to be able to come up and look at closely, since there are so many tiny pictures on it. I'm not sure people even really knew it was part of the World Peace art exhibition (there were several other pieces in the dining room that were also probably overlooked that way). But there really wasn't another good place to put it, since it's so long. >.>
Okay, the fourth and fifth are just to show off the little doves and the peace signs (there's one, sorta visible in the first tree pic) I made for the centerpieces. :P The sixth pic is of the TV that was set up in the living room to show what was going on onstage. You can also see the twelve larger doves I made in the second, third and sixth pictures. I really like how those turned out - using butcher paper made them more 3D than origami paper tends to, and we hung them up with fishing wire, so in photos, they kinda just look like they're flying through the air.
...back to the giant crane project. Here is my artist's statement (there are photographer credits underneath, but I've cropped them out of this picture):
It's a little eh, 'cause I thought I was running out of time to get it in, but it generally conveys what I was going for. There are so many details I wanted to talk about, though. XD Like that the first panel has a crane at Meiji Shrine as its centerpiece, and the fourth has a crane over California on a globe as its center pic, which was meant to show how traditions/beliefs that started in Japan - that of origami, the mysticism of the crane, and the legend of the 1,000 cranes, as well as kibou - move across the piece (and the world) to end up here in San Jose. And that I, unintentionally, stuck![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ginzarhapsody's picture of a Minute Man right next to one of my high school's friend's picture of a book on London, taken at Heathrow Airport. There's also a picture of my goldfish next to a picture of the sashimi we turned into sushi one night. Sorry, fishy! :P
And of course, I could ramble for a long time about all of the different pictures and where they were taken. I wish I could've included people's stories, as well, since they really make the pictures more personal. Ultimately, I had to cut about 35 of the ones I printed, which weren't all of the ones I received, but I tried to include a decent chunk from every place I got pictures from.
To finish, a few more pics with the final product. For some reason, I didn't get around to taking a picture of the first board on the wall (I think people were standing in front of it), but... here are the other three, and then the warrior monk people posing at the end of their awesome performance:
Once again, thank you all! The other pieces in the exhibition were really well-done - some were definitely made by art majors - but when I saw the final product up, I definitely didn't have that "AUGH AMATUER" feeling at all. It looks lovely. :D
Now... what to do with it when I have to take it down...
I hadn't realized I actually first posted about this back at the end of February. O_o Granted, the first two weeks were pretty much just spent on gathering pictures, and most of the real work happened in the last week before Pancake Breakfast, but that is still longer than I thought it was. Funny, since I remember thinking that I had No Time For This when I first decided to do it.
Pancake Breakfast went well overall - a bit chaotic, and for some reason, everyone expected me to know who was working what position in what section of the dining areas (and also to be able to be bussing in three different areas at once). >.> Aside from working two shifts as a busser and contributing to the World Peace art exhibition, I made origami doves to hang from the ceiling as well as smaller doves and peace signs (not origami), so there will be pictures of those as well. Despite the rain, we ended up with almost 500 people in attendance over four hours,
The art piece turned out really well! There are a few things that gave me moments of ARGH, like when the paper warped, and how the kanji are kinda crooked, but generally, I'm very pleased with the end result. So THANK YOU ALL again for your support! ♥♥♥♥♥ I was amazed by the amount of pictures that were sent in, and I loved hearing the little stories that some of you included with them about the places/objects in the photos, or the process of taking them.
So, let's begin! If you want to skip me rambling about how I made the thing, go to the second cut. ;)
---
Initially, as some of you may remember, my idea was to have two pieces, each with a half of kibou (希望 - hope in both Japanese and Chinese) on it over photos of cranes. This idea came about after much pondering of other shapes to put the pictures in - a globe (too hard to cut out the continental outlines; plus, which parts of the world would I feature?), a peace sign, a dove... In the end, roomie and I agreed that using the pictures as a background was probably more space-efficient and easier than trying to fit 1,000 cranes into a certain shape.
(The 1,000 cranes idea also came after the initial crane pic idea, and was a large part of my downfall. XDD)
The initial planning stage pics... from left to right: blank wall, Photoshop with the graphpapery lines on the kanji, wall with paper on, wall with paper on paper on, wall with paper with drawing on, wall with paper with cut-out kanji on, wall with photos on paper with cut-out kanji on!
Somehow, around the time of Spring Break, it became apparent that two foamboards would not be enough since I was now planning to stick 1,000 cranes on the whole collage. Even with the 200-crane strings I have at home, two boards would not be enough (photos of those make up 600 of the 1,000 cranes, I think. Maybe it's 800, 'cause I just can't believe I have almost 400 photos on this thing. XD But I am pretty sure it's 600). So I returned to school with four foamcore boards, for a total working space of 80 x 120 inches.
I re-did the kanji on new paper, and painted them white (which really made the grayness of the butcher paper show up XD):
L to R: the second kanji drawn out, the first kanji propped up against my window, and the finished second one on the floor. Lots of things ended up on my floor... paper, paper scraps, photo scraps, glue, rubber cement...
Then, because I like making lists, I put together Post-Its with the number of each 4x6 picture by color (red, pink, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, silver/gray, "dark," black & white, rainbow, and mixed, which included pics with multiple cranes of different colors), and the number of smaller pictures by color and size (large, medium, small and tiny), so that I could try and get an even number of each color and size on each board. I forgot to take a picture of these, but they are not necessary to see. :P
Anyways, some pics from the first (aka experimental-ish) kanji-ed board:
L to R, top: All the photos in their envelopes by color/size. >.> I had three different groups of photos printed, so there were a bunch; the first board in progress, with some of my color-coded piles visible; the first board with all pictures blu-tacked on.
Bottom row: close-ups!
The blu-tack made it hard to glue the photos down without having to pull them off completely, but still helped a lot for planning, especially with the two kanji-ed boards, where I had to accomodate brushstrokes.
Anyways, more in-progress pics, from all of the boards:
After the two kanji-ed boards were finished, things got much easier. Here are the photos I had left over at that point:
Board #3 (which became Board #4 in the actual presentation):
Board #4 (which became Board #1):
I used an exacto-knife to trim the edges, put the words back on (the glue warped them a bit because of the moisture, but they stuck down pretty well in the end), and put Mod Podge over the whole thing to just cement all the photos more. And I was left with a mess on the floor. XD
I turned the project in, felt vaguely guilty for making such an unwieldy piece while watching people figure out where to put it, and then... Pancake Breakfast was upon us! And my piece, which I titled "Hope for Peace," was up at the backdrop for the makeshift stage we use for the PCB performances.
It was pretty cool to see it up, and kinda fun to know that because it was the backdrop for the stage, everyone who watched the performances saw it. XD On the other hand, it's definitely the sort of piece that I wanted people to be able to come up and look at closely, since there are so many tiny pictures on it. I'm not sure people even really knew it was part of the World Peace art exhibition (there were several other pieces in the dining room that were also probably overlooked that way). But there really wasn't another good place to put it, since it's so long. >.>
Okay, the fourth and fifth are just to show off the little doves and the peace signs (there's one, sorta visible in the first tree pic) I made for the centerpieces. :P The sixth pic is of the TV that was set up in the living room to show what was going on onstage. You can also see the twelve larger doves I made in the second, third and sixth pictures. I really like how those turned out - using butcher paper made them more 3D than origami paper tends to, and we hung them up with fishing wire, so in photos, they kinda just look like they're flying through the air.
...back to the giant crane project. Here is my artist's statement (there are photographer credits underneath, but I've cropped them out of this picture):
It's a little eh, 'cause I thought I was running out of time to get it in, but it generally conveys what I was going for. There are so many details I wanted to talk about, though. XD Like that the first panel has a crane at Meiji Shrine as its centerpiece, and the fourth has a crane over California on a globe as its center pic, which was meant to show how traditions/beliefs that started in Japan - that of origami, the mysticism of the crane, and the legend of the 1,000 cranes, as well as kibou - move across the piece (and the world) to end up here in San Jose. And that I, unintentionally, stuck
ginzarhapsody's picture of a Minute Man right next to one of my high school's friend's picture of a book on London, taken at Heathrow Airport. There's also a picture of my goldfish next to a picture of the sashimi we turned into sushi one night. Sorry, fishy! :P And of course, I could ramble for a long time about all of the different pictures and where they were taken. I wish I could've included people's stories, as well, since they really make the pictures more personal. Ultimately, I had to cut about 35 of the ones I printed, which weren't all of the ones I received, but I tried to include a decent chunk from every place I got pictures from.
To finish, a few more pics with the final product. For some reason, I didn't get around to taking a picture of the first board on the wall (I think people were standing in front of it), but... here are the other three, and then the warrior monk people posing at the end of their awesome performance:
Once again, thank you all! The other pieces in the exhibition were really well-done - some were definitely made by art majors - but when I saw the final product up, I definitely didn't have that "AUGH AMATUER" feeling at all. It looks lovely. :D
Now... what to do with it when I have to take it down...
