“You won’t see this show again, this is it,” origami artist Joan Son said about her exhibit, “Part Geometry-Part Zen,” at the Dishman Art Museum through Nov. 1.
The show is the largest she’s ever presented, displaying some of her very first origami works to her most recent. The Dishman exhibit shows the evolution of Son’s work throughout her career.
“I started working probably in April, gathering everything, planning it, and getting stuff packed up and organized,” she said. “Yeah, it’s been a full-time job.”
Featuring pieces from previous exhibits, one of the highlights is “Time Travelers,” a series of life-size dresses handmade entirely out of paper.
Another of Son’s centerpieces is “Free Fall,” which features 2,000 origami butterflies draped over a corner of the museum, designed specifically for this exhibit. The installation is intended to soften the sharp edge of the gallery’s corner, inspired by feng shui, and includes a stream of gold butterflies in the middle, she said.
Son’s journey as an origami artist stretches back to childhood. Paper dolls and folded fortune tellers in school sparked her love for working with paper. In high school, a close friend taught her how to fold the origami crane and it stuck with her, she said.
Son said that after her mother’s death, she saw origami books in a bookstore, and she was pushed to take origami seriously.
“My first professional origami job (was) to do the windows of Tiffany’s,” she said. “And then the next was the Museum of Natural Science, and then the Smithsonian Museum shops.”
Since then, Son’s work has been featured in museums across Texas and beyond, including the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, the Pearl Fincher Museum, the San Angelo Museum, the Stark Museum, and now the Dishman.
Son has also included pieces from her robe series. “Earth Robe,” first displayed in Austin’s Scarborough building, is one of the few pieces she still owns from that collection.
“I thought, ‘Well, if I did a kimono shape that would suggest a human body, and it could be really big, it could fill the window,’” she said. “So, that’s what I did.”
Son’s “Clouds” and “Flags” series offer visitors a view of the many different themes she has explored over her artistic years.
Son said bringing her work all together shows her journey from simple butterflies and cranes to complex folded and painted pieces.
“It’s one thing if it’s in my studio in Montrose,” she said. “But it’s another thing to be spread out on these walls.
“I feel really connected when I do a museum show. I get more involved, and I like the venue of the museum. It feels right. It honors the work.”
Philosophy also plays a large role in her art. Son cites artist Agnes Martin as a major influence, specifically Martin’s instruction to, “Be obedient to inspiration.”
“Rather than just kind of thinking up something, I wait until this inspiration comes through,” Son said. “Because where does that come from? It comes from a mysterious place that we’re connected to.”
This outlook guided her in moments of doubt, reminding her that inspiration deserves trust and obedience, she said.
Son’s work also blends photography, painting and design. Many of her recent pieces use enlarged photographs with acrylic paint layered on top, giving her a direct way to leave her handprint on the image.
“When I paint, it’s fast,” she said. “It makes it more real for me, more original, that I put my hand work in it.”
Son’s connection to Japanese culture shows in her use of rare handmade papers, which she collected when visiting Tokyo in the early 2000s.
“The Japanese papers are so gorgeous and so long lasting,” she said. “In the ‘Free Fall’ piece, the gold papers are a Japanese tea chest paper, very thin, very strong. They don’t make it anymore. And I still have a few sheets of it. They’re very precious to me.”
Son said that the exhibit is not just an ending to this phase of her career, but a chance for visitors to witness the full arc of her career.
“Just the evolution of it I think is the most important thing, because the students will have their own evolution as their work develops,” she said. “To know that it might take 50 years to get it, that it might go through a lot of changes. So, it’s just the evolution of the work that I want them to see.”
The Carl Jung quote painted on the museum wall — “What did you do as a child that made the hours pass like minutes? Herein lies the clues to your earthly pursuits” — is one of Son’s favorites. It echoes her own rediscovery of origami as a lifelong passion.
“Joan Son: Part Geometry-Part Zen” gives visitors an opportunity to see the full scope of Son’s career before she moves on to new artistic pursuits. Son said she hopes visitors will not only see the evolution in her art but also feel inspired to follow their own creative path.
The Dishman Art Museum is located at 1030 E. Lavaca on the Lamar University campus.