Two giant Digital Origami Tigers from Australia are on a USA tour as part of G'Day USA.
The Digital Origami Tigers will be centre stage at the San Francisco Zoo from the 17 January to 12 February 2011. They will then charge off to Dallas, Chicago, New York City, and Washington, D.C.
The big cats have been on a World Wildlife Fund [WWF] global tour to raise awareness about the endangered status of tigers. Less than 3200 tigers remain in the wild.
The Digital Origami Tigers were designed by the Laboratory for Visionary Architecture [LAVA] and Customs House Sydney to mark the lunar Year of the Tiger.
“San Francisco is a perfect start for the U.S. tour. Sydney and San Francisco share a special city partnership, a similar spirit, topography, an exciting multicultural and especially Chinese community and … great zoos,” said Chris Bosse, director of LAVA.
The Digital Origami Tigers started their 2010 world travels playfully celebrating Chinese New Year at Customs House, Sydney in February, went to Kuala Lumpur as part of KL Design Week, Berlin for the WWF awareness campaign, and Singapore as part of the i-Light Marina Bay Festival.
The crouching Digital Origami Tigers combine ancient lantern making methods with cutting edge digital design and fabrication technology, bringing east and west together through tradition and innovation.
The tigers are inspired by “zhezhi”, a Chinese term for paper folding, more popularly known by its Japanese name “origami”. Traditional Chinese lantern makers in Sichuan province, where lantern making has been taking place for over 800 years and local artisans were consulted.
The size of a boat at 2.5 metres high and seven metres longm they weigh only 200kgs and use fully recyclable materials, aluminium and barrisol, a new light weight reusable stretch material. Pulsating low energy LED lighting brings the sculptures to life.
The project continues LAVA’s mission in lightweight structures to build more with less.
The tour is being organised by exhibition management company TrinityEight PR.
G'Day USA is taking place 15-29 January 2011 and is an annual program designed to showcase Australia in the USA. The 14-day program brings exciting new business, art, education and tourism events to eight US cities.
