A large part of my work has to do with family, which is a painful or bittersweet topic for me, and I believe quite universal. Thinking of twine that holds things together, the conduit, or the bloodline. An unavoidably connected through bloodlines. Or a conduit line of fragmentation. Feeling out of place but still implicit in relations to each other.

My mother bared a tremendous amount of weight for our family, she was always like a single mother to my sister and me. As an immigrant and Japanese, I have witnessed some of her struggles. As a small child, I remember people calling her slurs in grocery stores. This is why I often think of the concept of protection and objects that are made to ward off bad luck or evil. I have a cling for the spiritual… “spiritual” in a vague term, it is used to describe what cannot be described. Thus, embodying spirituality into a physical form- giving physicality to something that is intangible. Through what I think of as obsessions/obsessive mark-making. I would like to think of my sculptures as structures of devotion. A devotion to process and as a privilege.

I also reference Japanese folklore in my work. Through this topic, I was thinking about the topic of emergence/growth and encounter as well as a recognizable basis for theatricality. I reference yōkai (yōkai is made up of the kanji for bewitching, attractive, calamity, and the kanji for specter, apparition, mystery, and suspicious). I also reference the Kotobuki in “Data Matrix”, a chimera that is an amalgamation of the twelve zodiacs. Merely, possessing an image of the Kotobuki was thought to be able to protect a person from sickness and disease. I also use white and red in my works which also alludes to protection. In the old graveyards for those in power (called kofun), pictures are painted with an Indian red made of iron oxide. This red was meant to protect the body from evil. Since ancient times, as in many cultures, the color white has been a symbol of purity in Japanese culture. It was closely linked to the spiritual world. Even today, Shinto “shrine maidens”, Miko, wear white and red garments. Thus, by arranging objects I anthropomorphize them. I think about the harmony and interaction between pieces by imagining their viewpoints and their peripheral vision.

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