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Golden Venture Folding Vase. 11h x 10 diameter inches. Chinese Paper Folding or 3D Origami is a type of modular origami. Here, paper is folded into a simple triangular unit. Hundreds of these units are inserted into one another to create elaborate sculptures. The sculptures are painstakingly intricate, consisting of many tiny interlinking pieces, demonstrating the ability to improvise and make something out of nothing. They are beautiful objects made of the simple materials available.
Chinese paper folding was most likely Chinese in origin. The art form was popularized in 1993 when the Golden Venture, a cargo ship containing 286 undocumented immigrants from China, ran aground in Queens, New York, following a mutiny among their smugglers. Ten people drowned trying to escape the stranded ship. The detainees were put in prison. To pass their time, they folded and assembled paper models. Some of the models were given as gifts to those who helped their cause; others were sold and some were displayed in a traveling exhibit. In 2006, a movie was made depicting the conditions the illegal immigrants endured.
The survivors of the Golden Venture faced many hardships after arriving in the United States, where many spent years in immigration prison seeking asylum. While there, they engaged in an epic collective political art project, making more than 10,000 sculptures using Chinese paper folding, papier-mâché, and found materials. The detainees used plastic cutlery from the cafeteria for tools. For folding paper, they drew from legal pads provided by their pro bono lawyers.