Mixed-meda installation, 2020
Silkworm cocoons, mohair fleece, traditional Japanese rayon bunka thread, and porcelain.

Amaterasu is the Shinto goddess of the sun and the universe. After clashing with her brother, the god of sea and storm, she shuts herself inside a cave of darkness. Her absence plunges the earth into chaos, and to coax her from her cave of mourning, the other gods offer three sacred objects: a 500- branch Sakaki tree, a magatama jewel, and a mirror.

The Sakaki Tree, a Jewel, and the Mirror is a material exploration that works within this cosmology, exploring the spirits of these Japanese legends and folklore. Small figurines are crafted through intuitive and improvised assemblage, using porcelain, clay, and mixed textiles including silkworm cocoons, mohair fleece, and traditional Japanese rayon bunka thread. The figurines are raised on thin dowels and backlit, casting dramatic shadows that form a crucial part of the installation. Between the figures and the wall are a series of five moon-like, circular stretched canvases. The sparkly canvas used is intended for Bunka embroidery, a material choice through which I reference my grandmother’s practice of Bunka embroidery. Fifty of the figurines, each bear heads, feet, and hair and together with their shadows, one hundred enigmatic entities.

The theatre created around these miniature puppets conjures their role as a performance objects. Quietly dormant, each tiny figure contains its own story within the greater narrative the installation tells. They are non-human, strange and yet oddly familiar, with animalistic and fantastical qualities. Perhaps they are lucky talismans, or archetypes; they call up the puppets of traditional Japanese Bunraku theatre.

Periodically throughout the installation, I activate these performance objects through a series of intimate performances that use the figures as a tool of divination. Participants will contemplate the objects more closely, and through careful examination uncover both their unique stories, and the cosmology they all share. The performances will create playful and mysterious interactive experience, adding to the exhibition’s atmosphere of strangeness and beauty.

Wood carving and stands: Minoru Yamamoto
Lighting Design: James Proudfoot
Production Assistance: Cherry Wen Wen Lu
Ceramics Assistance: Julia Chirka

Photo #1-6 Courtesy of Dennis Ha