Webbed Within 2015
Photo by Nam Le
More photos will come soon.
Artist Statement
Sojourners live in the place where their native language is not spoken. The opportunity to speak my native language has been diminished in this foreign land. As a result, my Japanese vocabulary has been getting smaller these days. However, my consciousness and awareness of my native language has become much stronger. My accent never goes away. I still often think in my native language and translate it into English when I speak. I feel relaxed and natural when I speak in my native language. My hand still remembers the movement of the Japanese calligraphy that I practiced at a young age. The relationship with my native language will never end. This reminds me of a sense of home.
In this installation piece along with demonstration and performance, I keep adding calligraphy pieces and threads to the web-like structure. This expresses the never ending relationship with my native language which binds me, but at the same time, sustains me. The letters I chose are random words that we often practice at Japanese calligraphy classes.
In the show, viewers are welcome to go inside the installation space and if they would like, they can pick the calligraphy pieces and purchase them. Viewers are also welcome to request me to write the word that they would like. Japanese calligraphy piece has to be created in one moment of concentration. My hope is that this demonstration will become a place for me to treasure the moment of meeting people and communicate with them in this land of sojourning.