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Report
by Francis Ow
The last exhibition we had
at the Bukit Merah Library was more than 12 Years and the one incident
that still remains was the tripping of the fire alarm set off by the heat
generated from the TV camera lighting. So after two postpones it was finally
decided to have it during the June school holidays.
2nd June 2000 (Friday)
We had arranged to set up
the displays in the evening but Hee Sen took leave specially for this event
and arrived early in the afternoon together with his son, daughter, niece
and nephew. I met up with them and wasted no time to make some rearrangements
of the tables. Sadly, tablecloths were not provided for all the twenty-one
tables. Library managed only to get 4 and we covered the tables reserved
for the overseas contributors.
Cheng Chit arrived a little later with a large load of his own models plus the overseas ones. We filled up the tables with models, reserving 3 tables for last minute contributions. I concentrated on my own displays and used up 2 and a half tables; some were hung up on the walls. Hee Sen did likewise with models created by other folders, all produced from his “origami factory” The overseas section was set up by Cheng Chit, and most of the models came from Ronald Koh’s contacts. Sadly, Ronald was overseas and did not display his creations.
Chan Yew Meng and Brigitte arrived much later and they set up their displays. Yew Meng came with a small load of miniatures and artistically displayed them blending his creations with his own props of dried leaves, miniature stools and bottles. His collection of Origami photographs were also temporary laid out on the 3 reserved tables. Brigitte, the “Box fanatic” displayed Tomoko Fuse’s boxes and was overwhelmed when I show her a “Star Box” which I just recently learnt from Robin Glynn.
Having finished setting up my displays, I went about to help out to do some minor adjustments on the overseas section as well as Hee Sen’s section. Hee Sen brought so many models that even with the help of 4 others that came with him, he was still struggling to set up all his displays. A large bag full of models provided by Hee Sen was just spread out on a table to be given out free of charge to the attendees. I had to leave early and I did not know when Hee Sen left.
3rd June 2000 (Saturday
10am – 5pm).
The exhibition starts at
10am and I arrived late as I was working in the morning. I was very pleased
that all the displays were set up and Hee Sen’s son, daughter, niece and
nephew were helping out and also busy folding away. His son, armed with
a counter was happily clicking away counting the number of visitors. I
need to find out the actual number for the day but at one time slot, we
registered 137 visitors. Visitors were counted in hourly slots, 10am –
11am, 11am – 12 noon and so on. A staff of the library was assigned to
do this job but was very happy when Hee Sen’s son volunteered to relief
her of her duty.
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Brigitte teaching |
| Francis and Bridgitte teaching |  |
Meng Hoong, Benjamin Tan and Robert Choy were busy folding away as I was told there was not many visitors in the morning. Cheng Chit arrived at about the same time as I and we took over while Hee Sen went out for lunch. We had more visitors and very soon, I started to demonstrate and taught some models. David Brill’s Double Flexi Cube, Mitchell’s 6 piece Stellated Rhombic Dodecahedron and a couple Toki Yenn’s model were close at hand. I’ve arranged them because they are “crowd-pullers” and also because I did not want to lose these models. Two other albums of modulars by Jose Meeusen and Jeff Beynon were also placed on the same table. While I was demonstrating Brill’s Flexi-cube, right before our very nose, the album containing some 40 models folded by Jeff Beynon disappeared. A frantic search around the whole exhibition hall was made and the security guards were informed. Everyone leaving the Library had his or her bags searched but the precious album could not be located. If it was any one of my own models that was stolen, I could take it, in fact I’m quite used to it, having lost many models in the past. But this was something irreplaceable. I was so upset but I did not let this stop my fun of demonstrating and spreading the joy of origami to the many participants. Hee Sen, Brigitte and myself taught some origami to a large group of children. The teaching session started from 2.15pm and went overtime. We had wanted to teach some adults but sadly I think they still think Origami is kid’s stuff. We left the place at 5 PM.
Total number of visitors - 375
4th June 2000 (Sunday
1.00pm – 5pm)
The Library opens at 1pm
and I arrived early and went to a nearby coffee shop to have a little snack.
Hee Sen and Company and Cheng Chit were also early. We had some drinks
while Cheng Chit had his lunch. I had just taken out some papers and had
wanted to fold a modification of Robin Glynn’s Star box when a young man
approached me. He came all the way to learn to fold some of my heart models
and I simply cannot disappoint him. He’s one of the students from the Nanyang
Poly where Albert Sng teaches. Albert, busy with his new born babe were
not attend this exhibition. This guy, Heng, made full use of the limited
time I had and folded one model after another. He took out one model from
the display tables, telling me he wanted to learn how to fold it. He also
brought my book along and I gladly autographed it for him.
It was demo time and Hee Sen taught a group of children how to fold some origami colour pencils. An origami Box was also taught to accommodate the coloured pencils. I took over next, and demonstrated the 4 Seasons from a sheet of green origami paper. Winter – white, Spring – green, Summer – wave the paper, but not everyone understands Fall, being more used to Autumn instead. I had to explain that another word for Autumn is Fall. 6 sheets of origami papers were then handed out to each participant and they have no problems folding 6 waterbomb bases. Many must be thinking that origami is chicken feed - until they were told to assemble the 6 waterbomb bases to form a skeleton octahedron. The parents, sitting close by joined in and very soon another pair of hands was needed to complete the assembly. After the demo, many visitors came to request for more demonstrations. I showed them how to make a simple “magic” ring and the tumbling toy. I had so much fun showing this to a young boy. I placed the tumbler the correct way up and tipped it – it rolls smoothly. Turned it up the wrong side and asked the kid to do it – it doesn’t roll. Of course some of the adults know the trick but this young kid was just amazed, thinking that I had some kind of magic!
Time just flies and very soon we had to fold up the place. I was still thinking about the lost album so I just went out to have a smoke. Smoking is strictly forbidden in the Library so I had to do it outside. When I came back to pack up, Hee Sen’s daughter was so excited – she found the lost album (The album was actually found by Cheng Chit and passed on to my daughter to pass to Francis as we were all busy packing. - Hee Sen). Now that really makes my day. I happily packed up and Brigitte arrived just in time to see us packing up. Yes Brigitte, the Indian family you taught yesterday not only came back but came back with another family. Yes Hee Sen, from the sheer numbers of origami you produced, we still think you are an “Origami factory” Yes, Heng, you are welcome to any of our events to learn from us. Yes Yew Meng, being the oldest among us, I still think you are excellent in producing miniatures. Yes Cheng Chit, our new found origami friend, T. P. Kong, who came all the way from Malaysia to attend the exhibition, did admire your 3-D models. Yes, all of you who were present, I really enjoyed myself and I hope you have also enjoyed yourself.
Total number of visitors
- 221
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Contributions by 3 children
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