We’re thrilled to have been shortlisted as a finalist for the 2021 Concord Art Prize. An annual event that supports and champions artists from all media.
Our submission, ’18’ was a large scale floor piece in shimmering gold Fedrigoni paper and sat gleaming in the centre of the exhibition alongside some incredible installations. This year over 700 amazing entries were submitted, so to be one of the finalists was a real honour to sit alongside such high calibre and inspirational work.
What is the Concord Art Prize?
The Concord Art Prize encourages art inspired by music.
As if designed for us, our rhythmic origami folding was part of Angela’s journey from being a classical concert pianist so it felt so serendipitous, we really couldn’t resist being part of this amazing competition.
18 - our design
For our entry we had to select from a collection of enigmatic musical pieces. From chart pop to musical classics, there was a wide genre list to be inspired by.
We chose Steve Reich’s “Music for 18 Musicians” - a melodic verve of electro pulses which captured us immediately. Its rhythm and repetitive cadence spoke to us, reflecting the physical nature of our own work with its fold and repeat methodology. The music has a layered quality which inspired our final design.
The initial submission was originally planned to be a much smaller design, with numerous individual 2cm sections that piece together to create the installation. However, the insightful Ally Hillman, the Concord Art Prize exhibition curator, challenged us to create a much larger floor piece which evolved to become the 3 metre square finished work we called ’18'.
The fold process
We wanted the fold to be purposely simple, but deceptively so. After lots of development we focused on an augmented aperture that allows us to create variation and fluidity, which you can see in the gradients in the final piece.
The work is made up of 340 units. Each piece hand-folded in glistening Fedrigoni stock paper. They are our paper suppliers of choice and this year kindly sponsored our submission.
Sustainable design
We intentionally wanted the work to be sustainable. Allowing it to be repurposed and re-homed in other galleries across the globe. So each unit has been designed to unfold easily into a truly ‘flat-pack’ approach allowing it to be flexible both in size and location.
We’re often asked if our work can be re-purposed and this is a great example of how our ‘Architectural origami’ can be truly sustainable, transportable, and flexible enough to adapt to the space it inhabit
If you have a gallery or space where you’d like to enjoy our Concord Art Prize submission please get in touch, we’d love to hear from you.