Post by Marjorie Grigonis
ropes of crane, photo by Marjorie Grigonis
While Amy Kauffman was installing her show at the Bride I was photographing thousands of tiny origami cranes in Hiroshima. I haven’t seen Amy’s show yet but have read Libby and Roberta’s blog . Libby’s insightful and poetic words about Amy’s origami work struck me as applicable to the deeply affecting displays of paper cranes in Hiroshima. Libby spoke of “creating and merging the past and the present through the continuity of handiwork.”
Paper crane memorial, photo by Marjorie Grigonis
In the Hiroshima Peace Park near the children’s memorial there are millions of paper cranes, in pictorial arrangements and in long ropes of connected cranes, initially made by students from schools all over the world and brought or sent to Hiroshima. (Now anyone who wishes may send cranes to be put in the park and have a message for peace and their name registered in the Paper Crane data base.) The origin of these acts of memory is the story of a little girl who was two when the bomb was dropped, nine years later she developed leukemia. During her illness (she died within the year) she began making paper cranes believing that would keep her alive longer.
[editor: We’re going to post a couple of Marjories pictures of Japanese television, but in the meanwhile, those and more of Marjories photos from Japan can be seen here.]
–Posted by artist Marjorie Grigonis
