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A Study in Reverse Origami (VIDEO)

Oct 6, 2021
3 min read



I was born with a last name

and all the expectations that

came with it


from birth, I was crafted

to be an origami swan


to have perfectly folded edges

to exist on a shelf

to be looked at from a distance

to appear complete

to live precisely


I tried to live that way

~ I swear I did


for so so so long

I would resist the urge to

let go of the form

I was told to live by


they said my happiness

would be directly tied to how

impeccably I held my shape


they said that if I could show

any blemishes or faults if I

wanted to be honored


even during the days

when I could feel the

geometry inside of me

start to become wild poetry


I stayed as folded

as I could


despite the growing

sound of crinkling paper

coming from inside of my

loose leaf heart


~ I clung to my folds


one morning

- not too long ago


I woke up and I noticed that my perfectly

shaped swan wings had a wrinkle in it


I tried to hide my imperfection

from the world by only letting

people see my good side


my faultless side

my seamless side


a short while later I noticed

that my other wing had lost

its tight fold and was curling outward


I was coming

undone and unfolded

right in front of the world


the rest of me

started falling

apart soon after


within a short time

I no longer looked

like a perfect swan


I had become a flattened out piece

of paper with more crows-feet

creases in my form than I could count


eventually, a breeze came

and took me off of my shelf

and carried me out of the window

into the untamed wild


it was that moment


when I was my most unfurled self

that I called out to God


“where are my perfect folds?

where have my straight lines gone?”

I asked the empty sky


God spouted out of the ground

next to me in the form of a wildflower


“they are gone, my love,

all those things you once

thought you were are now gone”


I cried


“why are you crying?” God asked while stretching out above me with flower petals of at least a half-dozen colors that had never seen before from the safe shelf I had lived most of my life from.


“because without my folds and lines that I was given I have no purpose,” I sobbed. “Without my hard edges and defined creases I don’t know who I am anymore.”


“I do,” God said while exploding into an Easter bloom.


I held my breath.


“You finally get to be you. You are now an untouched canvas who decides what it gets to be marked with. You are lucky enough to be a piece of blank paper that gets to choose what is written on it. You get to be a selection of art that you get to help create. You are now able to leave behind the expectations this world has for you to be perfect - and now you get to become whatever you want to be.”


God was now a towering wildflower that was riding up to kiss the sun.


“Oh,” I replied while looking at myself with new eyes.


Instead of being tightly bound together, I was now an outstretched creation. Instead of being a perfect sculpture, I was an open hand.


“What now?” I asked the wildflower of God.


“What now?” God laughed. “Anything. Everything. It’s all in front of you. It’s all adventure from here.”


Suddenly a gust of wind picked me up

again and started carrying me to the horizon.


Even though I had been a swan my whole life the first time I ever flew was when I lost my wings.


I smiled.


What an adventure it is to come undone.




 
 
 

60 Comments


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Sep 11

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Sep 11

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Williams Kee.A
Aug 09

The reverse origami concept presented here is fascinating because it demonstrates how a familiar artistic process can look completely different when approached from another direction. The video element makes the idea especially interesting, since movement can reveal details that are difficult to understand through still images alone. I enjoyed the creative thinking behind https://www.sellmyhouseinbrevard.com/ the project and how it encourages viewers to reconsider something as simple as folding paper from a more experimental and unexpected perspective.

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