Your Custom Text Here
7’ x 7’ installation, 108 Hand Crafted Wooden Boxes, Antique Grandfather’s Clock
7’ x 7’ Installation, 108 Hand Crafted Acrylic Boxes, Letters engraved
Birch Wood Panel, Hand Crafted Boxed, Antique Farm House Window Sash, 44” x 27” x 4”
“Kinari" is a Japanese term for untreated white material which can be seen as representing a reflection of one's true self.
Birch Wood Panel, Hand Crafted Boxes, Antique Letter Press Drawer, 32” x 16” x 4”
In the old days in Japan, the color gray (Nibuiro) was only allowed to wear among priests because the color gray was considered a sacred color representing sorrowness and separation of a lover, family and friends. The blocks vary in size and height and have slightly different colors and different fonts. Each of the blocks are constructed individually by hand and are lined up tightly in an antique letter press drawer. The drawer is a metaphor for the personal moments and secrets that we store away and sometimes hide. This series depicts the sublime aging process.
Zen Buddhism teaches that humans have 108 defilements, and as part of a tradition, all temples in Japan ring their bells 108 times before the new year to purify ourselves of these defilements.
My recent series, titled “ This Is How I Aged” expresses the sublime beauty of the aging process, which I believe is heavily influenced by my unconscious understanding of Japanese Zen Buddhism. I use my perspective to depict this transcendent process: how we begin and how we end and what this means to us. By encapsulating our thoughts and memories in each of the numbered boxes, I want to reveal the passage of times. Each box is lasered-cut and hand-constructed individually, numbers are either hand-stitched or engraved. In our Japanese culture, Zen Buddhism holds the belief that humans have 108 defilements, and we have a tradition that all the temples in Japan must ring their temple’s bell 108 times right before the new year to cleanse us of our sins. Because of this, the number 108 is meaningful for the Japanese people, regardless of their religious beliefs. Inspired by this belief, I conceived the installation pieces titled “Composing Time” and “Erasing Time” to convey that our lives create all the occurrences and phenomena, but they are born from nothingness and return to nothingness.