Kumi Yamashita’s Deceptive Origami Profiles

Art & Design November 27, 2012

Kumi Yamashita Origami — **Origami Series by Kumi Yamashita**
*(Image © Kumi Yamashita)*

I sculpt shadow with light or sometimes light with shadow, but both function in essentially the same manner. I take objects and carve and place them in relation to a single light source. (Kumi Yamashita)

I am fascinated by the works of Kumi Yamashita – at first glance her Origami installation seems so simple, yet look again. Very clever…

**Orange Origami from Origami Series by Kumi Yamashita**
*(Image © Kumi Yamashita)*

**Green Origami from Origami Series by Kumi Yamashita**
*(Image © Kumi Yamashita)*

**Blue Origami from Origami Series by Kumi Yamashita**
*(Image © Kumi Yamashita)*

In her Origami installation from 2005, Yamashita has pinched and pleated square sheets of aluminium so that they cast shadows of human profiles when they are hung on the wall and lit from the side. Brilliant, yes?

Kumi Yamashita received her Master of Fine Arts degree from Glasgow School of Art. Her solo shows include: the Seattle Art Museum, Boise Art Museum, Yerba Buena Centre, San Francisco, the Esplanade in Singapore, Hillside Gallery in Tokyo and the Kent Gallery in New York, the Sato Museum, Tokyo and the Dillon Gallery, New York.

Her work is in the collections of the New Mexico History Museum, Seattle City Light, Microsoft Collection, Boise Art Museum, the Hamada Art Museum and others. But not in the TSL collection in Sydney, more’s the pity.

If you’d like to learn more about Kumi Yamashita, this is just the tip of the iceberg. You can check out her website here.

Joanna Frankham / About Author

Joanna Frankham helps you to make lasting diet and lifestyle choices that serve you. Jo is your AIP Mentor and Certified Health Coach who uses tools, rituals and group programs (like her foundational AIP Reset group program) to help you break down the AIP framework into manageable pieces; all to enable you to implement positive changes to improve your health. Jo’s special sauce is her ability to facilitate bringing AIPers together in a way that is informed, inclusive and encouraging. Chronic illness doesn’t have to be isolating.