My name is Sophia Lee. I’m a Taiwanese-American multimedia artist, creating paintings, drawings, light installations, and public artwork. My art finds its voice in the positive re-contextualization of urban waste and engaging the community to re-think the relation with everyday objects and the impact created by our modern living.
This window was an installation of hanging origami fish and light made possible through community involvement. I firmly believe in involving the community in my public art projects whenever possible to inspire action and small steps toward creativity. Thanks to the sponsorship of Palo Alto Artlift program during the pandemic year 2020. The installation was completed in the summer of 2021 and hung in the space until the empty store front was finally rented out in summer of 2022.
Besides sharing the project via social media, I also held folding workshops through Creative Morning’s Virtual Fieldtrips. By spring of 2021, I was able to hold outdoors in-person folding workshops with the Palo Alto community. I collected over 800 folded origami fish from workshops, drop boxes throughout the city, from family & friends, from people sending them via postal services.
Participants can fold any of the origami fish found on youtube videos linked on the website. The paper used for folding can be any paper you can find, especially recycled materials such as: junk-mail or shipping papers, food packaging, gift packaging, shopping bags, old magazines, etc.