About

私は日常生活の中で何気なく目についたものから産み出される作品制作を通して自分と祖先の記憶を繋げ合わせています。家族の写真、家財道具、家族に関する口伝、そして旅先で拾った物を集め、それらの断片を再構築し、一貫した物語としてまとめ上げています。私の作品は、世代を超えて明確に受け継がれてきたにもかかわらず、日本文化がその表現を抑圧してきた経験や感情を具現化しています。様々なオブジェを混沌と共に調和のとれた方法で組み立て、シュールでありながらも自然な環境の中にあるオブジェとしての彫刻を撮影することで、私たちの存在の複雑さを伝えています。 彫刻と写真の融合は、私の夢のようなビジョンを現実の表現可能なものとして伝えています。  

I transmute personal and ancestral memories by creating artwork from found items. I gather family photographs, family household items, oral history, and items from my travels to re-archive them into a cohesive narrative. My work materializes experiences and emotions that Japanese culture suppresses, despite their after-effects persisting across generations. I illustrate the complexity of our existence by assembling various objects in a chaotic yet harmonic manner, and by photographing the sculptures in a surreal yet natural environment. The fusion of my sculptures and photography express my dreamlike visions as real and possible.

My work reflects (sometimes literally through mirrors) the multiplicity of my perspective as a queer Japanese American immigrant from Nagasaki. I contemplate the joys and violence my family has experienced because of our gender, disability, poverty, and rurality. Through my meticulous ideation, research, and creative process, I recognize my family’s essence in me, and also in others with shared identities.

I believe nature, and particularly its tumultuousness, reflects this reverberation. Therefore, I consistently collaborate with natural elements, favoring natural lighting, settings, and materials. When I utilize artificial materials, I convert them to appear as though they have emerged from the earth. The raw fragility of my work captures the vulnerability and ephemeral beauty embedded within us and the land.

These sculptures and photographs are gateways from this world to another dimension, one that is familiar but more heartfelt. This alternate dimension honors the “shadow people” (i.e., people excluded as shameful and unworthy of archive), especially their tenacity and natural ability to express beauty.