DOGS by Akane Takayama

I was walking through Holland Park and discovered it was teeming with life-sized origami dogs! It was an enchanting art installation by Akane Takayama. You can learn more about the DOGS project here.

11 photos under the cut...

Each DOG has a little message of hope tucked into the back of its head. (They reminded me of friendly little paper golems.) As it says in this very informative post: "This aspect of the sculpture was very important. The DOGS in themselves are in effect clones, each as similar as possible to the next. A pack of uniformity where all identity can only really be that which the viewer brings to the installation. Yet once the panorama has been grasped and the audience move to interact they find that each DOG is personalised by the message of hope each one holds from the young children of the borough. As they moved from DOG to DOG the audience began to identify personally with individual sculptures."

'I wich that eveybody is magic'

'I wish everyone has a home food and everything and have fun.'

'I when thet eveyone got an edgejkasen'

At the end of the model-making session, this child wrote a little message for the artist:
'thank you very much indeed I had a great time come again.'

Something I enjoyed was watching people walking their dogs past the DOGS. The look of furious curiosity on the little furry faces -- the straining at the lead -- and the look of quiet panic on the human faces as they tried to prevent their pets from pouncing on the art installation.