Imagine walking into the peaceful calm of a beautiful, airy church sanctuary and looking up to see hundreds of white paper doves floating in the air―the doves move about gently as they ride the air currents―the sound of thrilling organ music surrounds you―and there’s only you and three others treading quietly down the aisle.
That’s how it felt when I visited the Peachtree Road United Methodist Church (PRUMC) in Atlanta recently (see my previous blog post, Atlanta City Break, for more highlights from that road trip). Brittany Charron, the Director of Evangelism & Hospitality, welcomed our small group and shared the story of “The Doves of Peachtree Road”.
There are 1,300 white doves―each folded from a sheet of paper using the ancient Japanese art of origami (paper folding). The doves are made in three different sizes―12, 14 and 16 inches―and carefully positioned to give the impression of movement. “The larger doves were installed at the back of the flock to create a forced perspective of them getting smaller the higher up they went.” explains Taro’s Origami Studio, the studio which brought the PRUMC Atlanta Doves art installation to life.
Here’s a closeup of one of the origami doves.
A closer look up into the copula reveals the grid netting used to suspend the origami doves. 
Each dove was pre-assigned a “specific set of coordinates on an X, Y and Z axis. The X and Y provided the spot on the netting, and the Z was for the length of the string to attach to the dove”. The paper doves were individually attached on-site before the netting was raised to the sanctuary ceiling. 
After more than two years of planning and preparation, the Taro’s Origami Studio team arrived in Atlanta to install the sanctuary dove installation. They had a tight window―between Sunday services―to install the six, overhead netting sections 60 feet above the sanctuary floor and attach over one thousand paper doves in their pre-assigned spots. All reports indicate the installation went without a hitch and the glorious new installation debuted at a spectacular dedication ceremony on the following Sunday! 
As indicated on their website “The Peachtree Road United Methodist Church is proud to present a magnificent work of art created to commemorate the spirit of our people and our Centennial. As a gift to our congregation and community, we offer “The Doves of Peachtree Road” – a breathtaking installation of origami doves ascending through the sacred space of our sanctuary – inspiring peace, hope, and wonder.”
The installation is scheduled to stay in place until June 2025. At that time, the individual origami doves will be given to the church members who sponsored them. 
Taro’s Origami Studio has three locations in the US and Japan―one in Brooklyn New York, one in Asakusa Tokyo and one in Philadelphia. Interestingly, my sister Marian and I attended an Origami Experience at the Taro’s Origami Studio in Asakusa when we visited Japan in 2023. See the Travel > Asia > Japan category on the blog for more stories and photos from this memorable trip.
Here are a few of the origami wonders on display at Taro’s Origami Studio.
Our beginner origami projects, on the other hand, were a lot of fun to make but not nearly as impressive!
According to the book Things Japanese by Nicholas Bornoff, “Until the 1880s, oni (fold) gami (paper) was known as or-kata, the Way to Fold. It was a widespread hobby that had been practised for a very long time, almost as long as paper-making. So it comes as no surprise that origami originated in China.
First invented by an imperial servant named Ts’ai Lun 2,000 years ago, paper came into Japan along with Buddhism during the mid 6th century. Not content with merely writing on it, the Chinese were already using the material for making boxes and various articles out of papier mâché, as well as exploring the possibilities of paper-folding. Having adopted all these things, it wasn’t very long before the Japanese were adapting them.
Paper-folding found applications in both religious and secular contexts.” For instance, the white zigzag streamers (shide) seen hanging from braided straw ropes (shimenawa) at Shinto shrines are often made of paper which has been folded to represent lightning bolts. The shimenawa and shide demarcate sacred areas as well as ward off evil spirits.
The Things Japanese article continues, “What became known as ori-kata soon became a pastime particularity popular with women. For many hundreds of years, the secrets of paper-folding had been handed down from mother to daughter until a manual, describing and illustrating the most popular designs, was published in 1797. Called ‘Hiden Senbazuru Ovikata’ or ‘The Secrets of Folding One Thousand Cranes’, it is still in print 200 years later. By the time of the book’s publication, the crane was the most common of many hundreds of designs suggesting other birds and animals, insects, human figures and assorted objects”.
There are countless versions of instructions for making origami cranes available today.
“Of all the origami figures, however, the most common is the most poignant: the senbazuru” meaning 1,000 origami cranes. Cranes are a “a symbol of longevity in Japan. According to an old superstition, when someone is ill, their condition will improve if you make 1,000 cranes for them.”
There were likely more than 1,000 paper cranes included in this joyful origami display which I spotted years ago in the lobby of the Aria Resort & Casino in Las Vegas.
Nowadays, the principles of origami are applied to more than just paper. Kevin Box Studio, for instance, creates huge metal sculptures by applying the art of origami.
As explained on their website, “Origami, meaning “folding paper” in Japanese, reflects the essence of creativity: making something out of (basically) nothing. Start with a simple square piece of paper. Apply the art of origami, folding the paper in a creative way to produce an elegant object—a soaring bird, gliding plane, galloping pony, floating boat, or an emerging butterfly. Artist Kevin Box takes origami to another level, transforming paper into museum quality metal sculpture through processes he has pioneered in teamwork with foundries, fabrication shops, and his studio staff.”
Shown below is Hero’s Horse, one of Kevin Box Studio’s amazing artworks. This photo was taken at the Atlanta Botanical Garden at the tail end of the Origami in the Garden exhibition. Hero’s Horse, which is made of powder-coated, cast stainless steel, stands 18 feet high.
This next artwork, by Kevin Box and Robert J. Lang, is called Dear Family and includes an origami-inspired buck, doe and fawn in powder-coated fabricated cast stainless steel.
Scents of Gratitude is a 30-foot bouquet of flowers made in powder-coated, fabricated, aluminum and stainless steel. This origami-inspired artwork was created by Beth Johnson, Jennifer Box, Kevin Box Studio, Michael G. LaFosse and Robert J. Lang.
Artist Kevin Box has indeed taken origami to another level!
More Info
Previous blog posts mentioned in this blog post include:
. Atlanta City Break
. Travel > Asia > Japan category for stories and photos about Japan.
To learn more about the Peachtree Road United Methodist Church and The Doves of Peachtree Road – Sanctuary Dove Tours, see their website. The origami installation is scheduled to be in place from November 2024 to June 2025.
See Taro’s Origami Studio website to learn more about this organization, the classes they offer and their involvement in the Peachtree Road United Methodist Church Doves Project.
See the Origami in the Garden website to learn more about this traveling exhibition and the Kevin Box Studio.
The following books and articles were consulted in the writing of this blog post:
. Things Japanese book by Nicholas Bornoff which is available here on Internet Archives
. Hiden Senbazuru Orikata entry on Wikipedia Commons.
Today’s Takeaways
1. Origami is the Japanese art of folding objects out of paper.
2. “The Doves of Peachtree Road … are a breathtaking installation of origami doves ascending through the sacred space of … [the] sanctuary – inspiring peace, hope, and wonder.” Peachtree Road United Methodist Church
3. “Origami reflects the essence of creativity: making something out of (basically) nothing. Start with a simple square piece of paper. Apply the art of origami, folding the paper in a creative way to produce an elegant object…”. Kevin Box Studio
