I am Japanese, and my cultural heritage deeply informs my work. Living away from Japan has given me a renewed appreciation for its way of thinking, sense of values, and its arts, including design and architecture. Having been immersed in Japanese culture since birth, I carry these sensibilities with me in my artistic practice today.
As an installation artist, I create immersive atmospheres through light and shadow—spaces that are soothing, tranquil, pure, and spiritual. These qualities reflect the environments I experienced growing up in Japan, where subtlety, quietness, and awareness of nature shape everyday life.
My work explores women within a generational context through traditional textile techniques and their iconography. Although originating in Western culture, I use the doily as a central motif, experimenting with it across different settings, scales, and materials–sometimes incongruously, sometimes traditionally. The doily holds deep meaning for me: its techniques are passed down through generations, and its repeated stitches and patterns symbolize continuity over time. The long, uncut threads used to create doilies represent an unbroken line of life.
I am drawn to doilies for their beauty, delicacy, and elegance, as well as the multiple layers of meaning they contain. I have explored their possibilities by altering materials, scale, and modes of installation. My practice includes creating monumental doilies by cutting white plastic tarps, floating doilies on a lake, producing mirrored doily illusions, and videotaping performances of synchronized swimmers arranged in doily formations.
My recent work focuses on eternity and the circle of life through the lens of mortality. I seek to express how ancestry, repeated generations, and cyclical existence give meaning to human life. Recycled materials—such as plastic bottles and grocery bags—play a significant role in my work, as they are given a new lease on life, directly reflecting my ongoing exploration of renewal and continuity.
Water is a vital element in my practice. As one of the most essential forces sustaining life, water embodies both continuity and transformation through its own natural cycles. My engagement with water, combined with the use of recycled materials, has led my practice toward environmental art, which has become an increasingly important aspect of my work and resonates strongly with the current global condition.
Through my work, I invite viewers to reflect on how to live fully within the finite nature of life. My thoughts often turn to our ancestors—those who once lived on this Earth—and to future generations yet to come, tracing a quiet continuity across time. My work seeks to create a space for contemplation, reminding us that within mortality lies eternity, and offering moments of stillness in which viewers may consider the value of life, continuity, and care.