Working from schematics can often be seen as firm instructions, ideal executions awaiting an operator. Sol Lewitt’s instructions must be followed through exactly, though there exists some variation as allowed within the instruction, the liberties allowed are not transformative; some even go as far to attempt solving his works. Disregarding instructions such as those applied by Ikea may seem barbaric, Ikea hacking exists as a practice seeking to diverge from the expected. Though there allows for minor variation, whether in the chosen patina of your Billy bookcase or your 50 starting positions for Lewitt’s Wall Drawing #118, there are no means for significant departure from the work as intended and predescribed; No room for surprises or emergent characteristics.
Paper folding, and more specific origami is an artform often pursued through reiteration of known forms by applying instructions upon standardised paper sheets. The scale at which these sheets manifest, or their colouring are of less critical importance, it is the actions applied and in which order that the art resides. There are issues of tolerance and precision in producing a thousand paper cranes, but the goal is duplication over variation.
One can depart the preconceived paradigm through using origami as substrate, Hitomi Igarashi became the inaugural recipient of the Lexus Design Award in 2013 by exploring the irregularity born of paper substrates with her project porcelain origami. Using paper as threshold rather than artefact provides a array of new variables to degrade and distance from the work ‘as intended’. The scale to the blueprint, the variations of material in porcelain mix or paper stock, and methods of casting or moulding creates all disrupt the process of duplication.
Permutation, across a set of constraints and the imprecision of wet paper and liquid earthenware yields artefacts of great variation and character of their own despite sharing their original instructions. As a material, paper once cared little for its size, the form being near identical when half or double its size as produced from different sheets, when asked to hold a material with its own agenda and mass now buckles at one size and not another. A pattern may emerge entirely different when at the size of an egg cup versus a vase. Buckling and bending out of shape, irreversibly into one entirely new.
Though bound by working purly in repetition, the interface between two entirely different materials and associated practices lead to production of a wide range of works each bearing the scars of a battle in production. The controlled and the unexpected married into a family of forms, each unlike the last, forming an outcome beyond what could be predicted looking at the materials in isolation. Igarashi’s work exposes a single process that offers great value, but more importantly demonstrates how practices can work symbiotically.
During the creation of her series there would have been no doubt many failings, trying to wrangle porcelain into acting as origami. However, with failings come experimentation, compensation in both camps, whether helping the porcelain cure by hand or adjusting the origami pattern and scale to better suit the material. Both force a creator to understand the needs of each material to best create a work of both worlds. Going forward, one may be argued there is novelty in simply forcing one material to wear another's shoes, however, it demonstrates dedication and skill to unite them as Igarashi has.
