CONNECTION / mino washi paper (handmade by the artist), plexi glass, LED light / light
box / 150x300x300mm / 2014
The work
created during the MINO-AIR artist in residence program in Mino city. Since the
early eight century, the area of Mino has been one of the most famous paper
production places in Japan. During the residency I used locally produced paper and
learned traditional techniques to create my installation exhibited in the
Mino-Washi Museum.
I approach mino
washi paper from the direction of science and technology. My aim is to engage
tradition with our daily life, and to seek the ways to maintain it for the
future. As the Japanese philosopher Miki Kiyoshi (1897-1945) sad: “Tradition is something that is actively
made to live in the present, and such present activity always involves a
relation with the future: it is through human action that tradition from the
past is linked to the present and to the future.” *
The light box created
using traditional paper cutting technique and handmade mino washi paper (I made
during a workshop in the Mino-Washi Museum). The image shows the Shinkansen
bullet train navigating board. The work searches for connections between the
tradition and the future by combining traditional technique and material, with
the latest technology.
* On tradition
by Miki Kiyoshi, published in the journal Chisei (intelligence), January 1940,
MKZ XIV , Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1968, pp. 307. Trans. By A. Jacinto Zavala.
MINO AIR - Paper
Art Village Project 2014 / Mino City, Gifu Prefecture / JP
Photo by Fumiko
Otsuka