Midori Furze

I was born and grew up in Japan. I came to Sydney in 1989 and have been living in Sydney's Northern Beaches since then.
I am a multi-disciplinary artist who creates canvas paintings, Suni-e, origami 3D objects and installations. I work with event management companies to create unique origami in Sydney.

When I was at the artist residency in 2010, one of the directors saw my origami in my studio. Until then I painted Western-style paintings on canvas which I had learnt at school. But he encouraged me to do more origami because it was unique about me as a Japanese artist based in Sydney.
I did many public participating origami projects and they were all well-received.
In 2022, I received the Foreign Minister's commendation Award by the Japanese Government for my contribution to the Australia-Japan culture exchange. I was also awarded by the Consulate-General of Japan, Sydney in 2016.

I have been teaching Origami at many places in Sydney for more than twelve years. e.g. the Art Gallery of NSW, Australian Museum, Powerhouse Museum, Japan Foundation, Hazelhurst Art Center. My origami workshops are very popular at festivals and events.

Teaching Origami is one of my passion. It is delightful to see big smiles on people's faces when they completed their origami for the first time.
A sheet of square paper turned into a bird still amazes me. Japanese people have been folding paper cranes for more than 400 years. We fold the same way as the people who lived 400 years ago.
Origami is an affordable, lightweight, clean activity. You can play anywhere. It is a great exercise for our hands as well as our brains.

In recent years, origami techniques are used in design, math and science. The airbags in the cars are folded. The solar panels in the spaceships are folded. The stents save people's lives.
I hope we will have more wonderful inventors in Australia in the near future who enjoyed folding origami when they were little.

Let's start folding!