Tanpopo (Dandelions)
steamed rice and wire
2010
I placed rice balls stuck on a piece of wire in spaces such as a public gathering place and a yard at a housing area in Kansas. Rice is an important staple food in Japan. Rice implies various metaphorical positive meanings for us Japanese such as life, hope, harvest, and effect of labor. It is also a unit of volume defining the population, thus it can be read as if it were a human body. I intended that this installation piece has the look of a dandelion, tanpopo field. Dandelions are considered to be one of the weeds here in Kansas but it is not necessarily true in Japan. The steamed rice, human body, deteriorates with mold gathering as time goes by. With this site-specific process oriented installation piece, I explored my feeling of cultural displacement in this place where I sojourn.