Origami Whales & Dolphins
Entanglement, a Double Disaster
Peggy Oki is often known as one of the members of the Zephyr Competition Team (Z-Boys), which came together during the 1970s in Santa Monica, California, to pioneer our modern notion of skateboarding. However, Oki’s true passion lies in the ocean—specifically cetaceans (whales and dolphins) and bringing attention to how these species have suffered at the hands of human impact on the ocean and the environment. Since 2004, Oki has traveled the world presenting the Origami Whales Project, in which she leads the public in folding origami whales and dolphins by the thousands, as part of a continued movement to raise awareness for cetaceans threatened by commercial whaling or fisheries activity.
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Peggy Oki in front of “Entanglement.” Photo by Phillip Lee, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives
For the 2022 Festival, Oki took the project in a new direction entitled “Entanglement, a Double Disaster.” It highlights the severe threat to whales, dolphins, and countless other sea creatures due to bycatch and entanglement—when animals are unintentionally caught in fishing nets that are either used to trawl the ocean or discarded into the sea. According to the International Whaling Commission, over 300,000 cetaceans are killed each year due to bycatch, making it by far the greatest threat to this group of sea animals.
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Crowds gathered each day to add to the public sculpture. Photo by Phillip Lee, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives
For “Entanglement, a Double Disaster,” Festival visitors folded whales and dolphins out of upcycled maps and science brochures, which Oki incorporated into two large-scale mosaics suspended on recovered fishing nets. “Entanglement” was one aspect of the Festival’s Wavelength art installation space, co-presented by the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center, which also featured artists L. Frank Manriquez, Jane Chang Mi, and Soul & Ink, to highlight the ways that humans and sea creatures are interconnected.
