The grand folds of life
- Diana makes origami creations for fashion runways
- Her ephemeral works are unfolded for recycling
- She exhibited her first retrospective in 2022, spanning 24 years of work
Diana Gamboa Murra’s earliest memory of folding paper goes back to age eight, though her father, master origamist himself, insists she started much earlier, at three. Since then, every crease has been a cumulative life’s work of dynamic meditation, fold within fold in a fractal dance of geometric creations. She is known in the fashion industry as a role model for her ephemeral runway collections and considers herself a 'paper weaver', for she is not intimidated by paper’s fragility against the needle. Diana weaves her way through paper with various techniques, such as embroidery and crochet, which she learned from her mother’s Palestinian ancestry. Her work in Colombia constitutes a meshing of cultures – Japanese and Arabic – and in essence, that is also who she is.
INTERVIEW
A positive turnaround for a fashion show on “how we connect art and fashion” as an applied arts student. I could only think of working with wood, and my husband suggested origami. I ironically replied it was crazy, but crazy as it could be, it resulted in my first ephemeral runway.
That I do voluntary work with my family visiting hospitals and terminally ill children wherever I exhibit, to teach origami as a means for healing. Patients, families, and even medical staff participate in the process.
Origami is resilient. It is fractal, therefore infinite. It is the duty of the master to teach and spread this knowledge.
The sound as paper folds, the awareness and mindfulness of an ordinary day unfolding, and my children and husband.
