7’(H) X 6’ (W) 2025

Handcrafted Juban, Handcrafted and Stitched Resin Flowers

Juban is the undergarment worn beneath a Kimono. In Japan, the white Juban was traditionally worn for weddings, representing innocence and purity, whereas the red Juban was worn by prostitutes in the Samurai era. This piece brings both together - over 400 individually crafted resin flowers are decorated onto a hand-stitched Juban, cascading down and surrounding the piece. This dualistic depiction of womanhood is adorned with an abundance of flowers.

52”x 65” x 15”

2024

In my artwork "AMERIKAN DORIMU," I aim to portray the excessive consumption associated with the American Dream from the perspective of an immigrant. The familiar everyday products symbolize postwar Japan in the 1970s, when Western culture began to heavily influence our traditional culture. These products were seen as symbols of prosperity, joy, and hope, but also marked the shift towards materialism and consumerism. Each package is depicted on painted and silk-screened canvases, machine-stitched into fiber-filled packages, and displayed in a large pile within an abandoned shopping cart and hung floating on the wall as an installation piece.

The project aims to capture the sentimental value of possessions that were once a part of people's lives. These possessions served a purpose, held meaning, or brought joy to individuals on a daily basis. As people and society change, these possessions are left behind and exist only in memories, like empty shells depicting the fading emotional attachment. The objects’ likenesses are preserved in resin and packaged in blister clamshell packages, reminiscent of how they were once displayed in stores as commodities.

Includes “Composing Time”, “Erasing Time”, and “108 Defilements,” expressing the sublime beauty of the transcendent aging process. By encapsulating our thoughts in each of the numbered boxes, this piece conveys that our lives filled with occurrences and phenomena are born from nothingness and return to nothingness. The wooden clock and colored boxes of “Erasing Time” contrast the transparent clock and boxes of Composing Time. 108 numbers refers to the number of our defilements from Zen belief.

20”x20”x65”

Handcrafted Wooden Boxes