Origami Workshop

 

4/25/26 Fresh Mochi Gallery

Fresh Mochi Gallery on Beacon Hill looks unassuming. Located on a quiet, residential street, it would be easy to miss. Inside, however, a remarkable project is taking place.

Last Saturday I joined several other women in a free workshop to learn how to fold an origami vulva (yes, you read that right). Our contributions from the workshop will eventually become part of a head-exploding installation by artist Hanako O’Leary.

In a variety of media, primarily ceramics, O’Leary’s latest body of work focuses on the image of the vulva. (Some pieces are currently on exhibit at Fresh Mochi.) The origami is part of “Kamon,” which is about women’s freedom, mythology, “the strength to live in one’s own body,” and much more. This part of “Kamon” requires thousands and thousands of origami pieces that are being stitched together into a delicate, suspended, quilt-like installation. Three more segments are still in the design and conceptualization stage. 

During the two-hour workshop, I completed only two vulvas! It’s a complex structure that was more intense to learn than I anticipated. Although O’Leary has a small team helping her to make and assemble the installation, she holds regular workshops to involve the community. I am honored and humbled to participate in her work, even in this tiny way.

This was my practice piece made of commercial origami paper. O'Leary placed
 a small patch of gold leaf in the center when it was completed.
 She let contributors keep the practice pieces.

The final piece that will be included in the installation is made of a fabric-like paper hand-dyed by the artist. She placed gold leaf in the center after I took this photo. O'Leary asked each participant to write the birth name and place of their mothers on the back, honoring the heritage of our birth mothers.