Origami artist and gallery owner Alice Larson now has a new and impactful work on display at her gallery, Island Paper Chase, that commemorates the lives lost to COVID-19 in King County.
The artwork, called “Forest of Lost Souls,” includes a hanging origami crane for everyone who has died of the disease in the county since March of 2020. By mid-July of 2021, this number totaled 1,680. Gold cranes on the artwork represent the lives lost on Vashon.
The cranes are strung on a nearly invisible monofilament line, to look as if they are flying, and then placed on an aluminum framework — which can be unfortunately expanded if numbers increase, Larson said.
Her art form, she added, is typically used to celebrate both happy and sad occasions, so she felt that paper cranes were an appropriate symbol to represent those who lost their lives to the disease.
Moreover, she believes the scale of the artwork will help viewers better appreciate the true toll of the pandemic.
“I have been bothered for some time with our collective inability to really appreciate the scale of individuals we have lost to COVID,” she said. “When you say more than 600,000 in the United States, the number is simply too large to conceive or even react to. I believe this figure needs to be directed to a geographic level most people can appreciate — such as King County, Washington, for those of us who live around here.”
The artwork — which includes explanatory signage, will be on display in a small side room at Island Paper Chase during the First Friday gallery cruise taking place from 6 to 8 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 6.
But Larson hopes, eventually, to install the work in a larger venue.
“In the best of worlds, I would like this display to be interactive, allowing people to walk through the strands, and let those most affected write the name of someone they have lost from COVID on a crane,” she said. “For now, I want viewers to be able to walk around the exhibit, and my desire is to hang this work in a public space where it can be widely viewed.”
Larson credited Bangasser and Associates, of Vashon, for their contribution to cover construction of the artwork’s aluminum frame.
To find out what other exhibits will open on First Friday, see page 8.
