I’ve just arrived back from installing an origami piece in Hong Kong for Chinese New Year. Hot on the tails of completing my London commission, I was asked to create an origami installation for Pacific Place, an upmarket shopping mall on Hong Kong island which houses the likes of Cartier, Bulgari, Tiffany & Co and Burberry.

The finished installation.
The peach trees below the fish will eventually burst into flower.

As the title of the installation was ‘Shoals of Prosperity’, it seemed ideal to create a large 3D fish made from thousands of small origami fish – 4876 in total.  The deadline was incredibly tight, so I waved goodbye to Christmas and set about folding and folding and folding (with the help of some willing assistants – thank you Amy, Kate and Martin!).

Making the origami fish

The tricky part of the commission was to create a realistic fish shape from lots of origami hanging from fishing wire.  And the fact that, due to its size, I wouldn’t be able to see the completed piece until it was installed in situ.  The overall size of the fish was six metres in length by three metres wide by four metres in height and was all hung from lines of fishing wire hung from acrylic rods.

Its finished!

Me pretending to be a film star with my entourage

Once installed I spent three days doing lots of media interviews for newspapers, magazines and TV – more on this later.  I can now say Happy Chinese New Year in both Mandarin and Cantonese!

Pointing out Pacific Place from ‘The Peak’

The six metre Fantail fish made from almost 5000 origami fish