Eric Joisel : Barbarians

“Let me try to explain the various origami stages that I went through during my career, the actual result is the series of “Barbarians” (which I call like that in reference to the film Conan the Barbarian’ with Arnold Swartzenegger), a character of “Heroic Fantasy” that could represent the first model in the series (in fact, I changed it to Aragorn, the Lord of the Ring.)

Aragorn, Lord of the Ring
It would be difficult to produce such objects without using methyl-cellulose and wet-folding technique, nor the metal structure that maintained the object in the desired shape, especially during transports and exhibitions. Also, if these objects are relatively large compared to other origami models, many details are very small, and force me to work with certain modeling tools (for shaping the clay normally) or tweezers’ fence.
Conan the Barbarian.

Another important difference: traditional origami is supposed to be a small popular distraction that almost general public can practice, and thus, assumed to be relatively simple, quick, reproduceable, written from first to last steps. Instead, this series of Barbarians is the culmination of many improvisation tests that I started experimenting especially in masks. The number of folds is very important here (several hundreds); deformations of layers of paper more or less random and often complex, and these models always include a large part of improvisation. So then I, and sometimes more than me, the paper itself directed the work. So my models are not reproducible. Even I am generally unable to produce a copy!

A third highly questionable aspect in these “Barbarians”: Is it necessary to reproduce every detail so realistic, all scales of the coat of mail, for example? That’s precisely one of the things that interests me the most: from a flat surface initially white, produce very different textures in a single model, and after all, give the illusion of different colors. This approach is quite normal in sculpture.

Work in 3D and with a large part of improvisation, which I have experimented in masks, as well as the “paper economy”; even if they are 3D, realistic and detailed, the height of the completed model is about 1/3 of the initial square, a usual ratio in many other origami models.

I am not the only one decider: the great number of layers can push me in a direction I don’t want, so that I can say both of us (the paper and myself) create the model. The paper is not the slave of my brain and fingers.

The use of the “box-pleating,” fixing my poor geometrical aptitudes; But this simple technical help to produce the textures experienced since my first models, in fact animals such as hedgehogs, snail, pangolin, turtle which already included “shapes” and other textures of paper playing with the light.”