kamitonomojigatari / 紙とのもじがたり
Tokyo University of Arts - Fine Arts Museum
JAPAN
2011
This series started with an obsession to create works entirely derived from trees. My printmaking work is focused on handmade paper as a primary medium. This artwork took seven years in the making.
In 2011, while I was living in Japan, a tsunami disaster hit the northern coast of Honshu. The response to the void was a communal wave of solace to those whose sense of loss felt insurmountable.
One single tree remained untouched, standing in the devastated city of Fukushima. That tree reasserted my will to devote my PhD research to pigment derivations using urushi and washi papermaking.
