Enormous origami sculptures tower high over the city’s most famous landmarks in a visual artist’s giant origami art, from Burj Khalifa to Burj Al Arab, the skyline is reimagined by the artist.
The scenes are part of a new video, which has gone viral in the UAE, even being reposted by Dubai Tourism. The video’s creator, 3D artist Rohith Jagadisha, expresses his shock by the response.
The Indian artist had begun working on the video two months ago, as a way of fulfilling a promise he made to his daughter Vipanchi, who is seven years old.
Vipanchi has always been creative; and has enjoyed making origami for years. Like her parents, who are both artists, says the artist.
It was a typically creative idea from the young girl’s mind who said “Dubai has such huge sculptures, what if I create huge Origami?” she’s even painted the walls of their home similar to this.
The artist, 39, promised to turn her vision into a reality one day, but struggled to find the time to do it. However, earlier this year, after working in Dubai for 13 years, he and his family moved back to Karnataka, India.
“At first, I was busy with some freelance projects, but then I had a break and my daughter started asking, ‘What happened? You promised me you’d show me something. “So I started working on it for her. I did it just for the sake of her. All for her.”
Although Jagadisha graduated with a Bachelor in Fine Arts, in the 2000s as the 3D industry took off, he decided to retrain in new technologies. “At the time, my main skill was sculptures and painting, but I moved to this field because just doing painting is very hard.”
Today, he works as a 3D generalist, specializing in a wide array of fields. “In the 3D industry, there are a lot of departments—there’s a modeling department, animation, lighting, compositing, and so on. As a generalist, you have to know all of them.”
To produce the video, Jagadartha created 3D origami figures and imposed them over footage of different locations across Dubai: Atlantis, The Palm, Dubai Frame, Burj Al Arab, Dubai Marina, Museum of the Future, Sheikh Zayed Road, Business Bay, Burj Khalifa, and more.
After working on the project for a month, full-time, he unveiled his project, much to his daughter’s delight.
Jagadisha also shared his creation with the world at large, and it has since gone viral on Facebook, Instagram and even LinkedIn.