.森羅万象 (Shinrabanshō)
A forest of countless forms; all things in nature understood as one continuous field.
My work examines fleeting phenomena in the natural world as expressions of time and the ways in which we perceive it. Impermanence is the fundamental condition of existence. I am drawn to natural phenomena in continual transformation, such as rain, clouds, moonlight, mist, and seasonal transition, because they make that condition visible. Through sustained observation, I attend to subtle distinctions within these phenomena and construct visual systems that give them form across painting, sculpture, installation, and artist books. These observations become a means of reflecting on our own passage through the world.
Central to my work is the Japanese aesthetic and philosophical concept of mono no aware, an awareness of the transience of things. Seasonal language and historical nature-based calendars, including the seventy-two microseasons, provide enduring systems for observing temporal change.
Materials and form are guided by this inquiry. I work with aluminum, indigo, silver, and washi for their capacity to register light, atmosphere, and duration. Their physical properties allow light, environmental conditions, and the movement of the viewer to alter what can be seen, making perception itself active within the work. In this way, material extends sustained observation into physical form.
Language functions structurally within my work. Bilingual titles draw upon historically attested seasonal vocabulary and naming traditions that encode distinctions of weather, season, and time. I am interested in how naming can direct attention toward distinctions within the natural world that might otherwise pass unnoticed, and how those distinctions can be carried into visual and material experience. Raised between Northern California and a Buddhist temple in Japan, I have often lived within Japanese culture while also being perceived outside of it. This perspective has shaped my sustained practice of observation.