the GCT

It has been a busy start to the new year at Uni.

The week prior to the commencement of school, Emilia and I began working on our project "The Great Crane Trade." Over the course of the holidays collectively we folded 1,005 origami cranes. Emilia was inspired by the Japanese legend that when one folds 1,000 cranes a wish will be granted. I know it's part of some story, but I am unfamiliar with anything beyond the gist. The idea was to hand out 999 cranes to the public and record their wishes (as well as capture a photograph of the individual with their crane). We planned to assemble it into a book. This we would attempt to tie into the brief we had been set before the holidays of planning an exhibition around the theme of "Graphesis & Mathesis."

For 5 days we stood outside in the depths of the unseasonably frigid/snowy London winter shouting at passerbys to come and take a crane and write down a wish. We started in Covent Garden, when asked to leave by the owner we relocated to Charing Cross Rd (outside the other CSM campus) and eventually ended up scoring a booth at Camden Market. They were very kind to us art students! We had some big help in the form of other stall holders, my cousin Carol, interested participants and a few dear friends. We met a lot of fantastic people from around the world - lots of visitors from Australia, South Africa, Italy, the US and France. A number of the wishes are in different languages.

In the evenings we harassed bar hangerouters at the Hubbub across the street along with canvasing our complex. 3 houses (out of about 20) answered their doors, despite lights being on. How unfriendly!

We managed to collect 724 wishes by the end of the 5 day period.

Here are some of the images from the fun yet exhausting process.

1000 cranes.

Mimi in the cranes with her Holga.


Our sign, which was later edited to include the words "Free!"

The mock-up books ready for wishes.


The first day in Covent Garden.


Our stall in the Camden Lock Market


If you want to see more of us doing our best in Camden, our dear friend Hussain has posted some photos from his venture to our booth (bless him) in one of his many lovely picasa photo albums. To see them click here.