By Comtemporary Art Curator Magazine
Title: Oiran Clog
Year:2022
Media: Wool Fiber
Dimension: 24x24x10 cm 9.5” x 9.5” x 4”
The history of human clothing, which began with wearing a piece of cloth, has achieved its purpose such as protection against the cold, but has not progressed in the direction of wearing comfortable clothing. Rather, it represented wealth, authority, and was used to pursue beauty. People still wear high heels or tie belts around their waists to endure the pain in order to look beautiful. This work is modeled after the clogs worn by high-class Japanese courtesans called Oiran. The real one is made of wood, but I made it with wool fibers.It is formed by intertwining wool fibers, so it loses its shape once it is loosened. In this work, I express the fragility of the substance. There used to be a parade called Oiran Dochu, and the total weight of the costumes worn by the Oiran at that time was over 30kg, including the 7kg high clogs. It is so heavy that a normal person cannot stand on it. Chanel liberated women from corsets and bonnets. Thanks to the efforts of her and many other pioneers, we now have the freedom to choose comfortable clothing. We must respect cultural identities and traditions and freely express beauty and wealth through clothing. However, I think the practice of forcing women and people in certain professions to dress up in painful costumes should be stopped.
Title: Six Peaches
Year:2023
Media: Wool Fiber, Peach Seed
Dimension: 12cm diameter Each
I was eating a peach in the summer and thought the seeds looked like part of a woman's genitalia. And the peach skin with downy hair and its shape was like a woman's buttocks.So I decided to make a work on the theme of various abuses of female genitalia. The peach seeds were washed and dried, and wool fibers were used to form new peach pulp shapes on top of the seeds.There are many types of female genital abuse. Sometimes sand, pebbles, or glass are put into the vagina. Circumcision is often performed by grandmothers or female doctors, not by men.These women are forced to live in pain and poor hygiene. Nevertheless, female circumcision continues to increase. Sometimes women themselves want to be circumcised. After the stitches are removed, some women ask to be stitched again to please their husbands.I express cherishing the female genitalia rather than evoke violent images and condemn them for making people aware of the importance of fragile and precious parts of the female body.
Title: Good Morning
Year:2023
Madia: Wool Fiber
Dimension: 26 x 8 x 5cm 10”x3”x2”
For me, the toothbrush is a symbol of morning. The first thing I do when I wake up in the morning is brush my teeth. This routine is one of the proofs that I exist in this world. The casual routine that repeats every day will come to an end someday. I made this piece in gratitude for being able to wake up in the morning and brush my teeth.
Title: Memory- Sneaker 2022
Year: 2022
Media: Wool Fiber
Dimension: 26 x 10 x10 cm 10”x4”x4”
Using wool fibers, I punched needles and hardened them into the shape of my worn-out sneaker. Looking at the history of clothing, luxury was valued as a symbol of wealth and power rather than comfort. People have endured wearing high heels and corsets to look beautiful even though their legs and waist hurt. The Oiran clogs I made before this work are so tall and heavy that ordinary people cannot walk on them. In modern times, the code of clothing has become much looser. In creating this work, I observed my sneaker, and was surprised to find that a single sneaker had a variety of designs as well as functionality. I think sneakers that can be stylish without pain are a good new perspective.Recently, men and women of all ages are wearing sneakers in Japan. Sneakers are gender-neutral and age-neutral fashion that will lead the way in the future.
Title: Suffering Tofu
Year: 2022
Media: Cotton Fiber, Silk Gauze, Tofu Maker
Dimension: 15x12x15 cm 6” x 5” x6’
Death is one of the four inevitable sufferings that the Buddha preached. I focused on "death" among them and expressed the skull as a tofu relief. Tofu originated in China and is now widely used as a daily food in many countries. On the other hand, although death is not inevitable and can come to anyone anywhere in the world, we treat it like something special and avoid thinking about it in our daily lives. In 2017, I drew a skull for the first time in a work titled "Moment-2", which uses a courtesan as a motif. Until then, it was taboo for me to draw or create skeletons. This is because I felt negative energy, including death, in skeletons. But observing and drawing the skull, the kind of fear I had disappeared. In my work, "Woman", I realized that if the skin and muscles were removed, everyone would have ivory bones, regardless of race or gender. Since then, the skeleton has become a symbol of non-discrimination for me.
In this work, I combined a skull with tofu, a daily food, to express that death is part of our lives.I think that accepting the impermanence and insubstantiality of our life will lead to peace of mind, rather than being afraid and not thinking about it.