Origami brought Robert’s representations of wildlife into fundraising, commissions and exhibitions. The projects below follow that work from earlier campaigns to later museum and garden programs.
The fundraiser paired donations to the World Wildlife Fund with origami gifts. Supporters wrote about receiving rhinos and frogs, and about sharing those gifts with people whose work was devoted to conservation.
View the origami gray wolf commission and the finished works.
Remembering Sudan paired origami northern white rhinos with support for Ol Pejeta Conservancy. The donors’ responses describe their anticipation, their reasons for supporting the campaign, and the animals they received.
At the Santa Barbara Maritime Museum, Robert’s folded wildlife became part of an exhibition and a talk about the relationships within origami. The November 8 lecture introduced the works, their origins, and the maritime wildlife and people they portrayed.
Watch the Maritime Museum’s recording of Origami for an Interdependent World.
The Wildling Museum’s exhibition brought together origami animals found in Santa Barbara County, including steelhead trout, California condors and tarantulas. The collection was on view from November 10, 2018, through March 25, 2019, with a talk and opening reception on November 10.
At Lotusland, the relationship between folded forms and living plants became tangible in Robert’s bright-red cycad seed cone, folded from a single uncut hexagon of Thai unryu foil paper. The work joined an exhibition of origami responding to the surrounding gardens.
Robert returned to Lotusland for Memoirs of a Garden, the gala celebrating the reopening of the Japanese Garden. He folded a life-size red-crowned crane from a single uncut ten-foot square of unryu foil paper as part of a celebration supporting the garden’s care and conservation work.
Maritime Museum Speaker Shows How Origami Brings Harmony Into The Fold — Noozhawk, October 19, 2018
Wildling presents origami animals by Robert Salazar — Santa Ynez Valley Star, November 6, 2018
Folded Art: Origami Animals by Robert Salazar — Wildling Museum, November 10, 2018
Bold fold: Robert Salazar’s visionary origami work draws attention to conservation issues — Santa Maria Sun, November 14, 2018
Lotusland in Origami — Santa Barbara Independent, March 18, 2019
Lotusland’s Memoirs of a Garden Celebrates Re-Opening of Japanese Garden — Santa Barbara Independent, August 8, 2019
