Customs House Square, Chinese New Year

These 'Giant Digital Origami Tigers' celebrate Chinese New Year in Customs House Square, in front of Customs House at Circular Quay. This art installation was commissioned to raise awareness about the endangered status of tigers, in the Year of the Tiger. The installation is inspired by traditional Chinese lantern-making methods and zhezhi, the art of paper folding, more popularly known by the Japanese name origami. They are made from an aluminium wire frame with a stretched barrisol membrane and are illuminated at night by pulsating lights. The tigers were designed by LAVA (Laboratory for Visionary Architecture) an international design firm that also designed 'Void' during the Vivid Sydney festival last year. The designers also added some humour with the tigers playing soccer, to kick off the FIFA world cup starting later this year.