Paper handmade by the artist (kozo, mitsumata), sumi, stone, tatami, cedar
In 2020, I moved — mid-pandemic — to Iowa, US from Japan. The Udatsu Paper and Craft Museum, a place filled with friends and mentors, hosted this exhibition the August after my departure. As I was not there for the installation, I gave careful instructions, but I had one caveat: I did not tell them how to place the stones, and it was my hope they would curate the stones according to their own sensibilities. My dear friend Masuda Yoriyasu entered the space and placed the stones as he saw fit — and this brought me great joy in an otherwise uncertain time.
From 2018-2020, I was working a lot with low relief designs in pulp mimicking rock gardens, ripples of water, or islands. The ability to mold and transform the pulp when wet, and then have it solidify and become strong and supple when dry, was a means of recording time, movement, and choreography in the paper. Stones — fragments of deep time — were placed on top, as a contrast of gravity and material.
Also featured in this exhibition were sumi drawings on mitsumata paper — a 3-eyed wolf and a 3-eyed stag — which appeared in a previous exhibition “cavern of stars.” In this iteration, though, they were angled atop a tatami dais, and served as totems for viewers as they circled the space.
