Gifts, Unum
2024, 24" x 38" x 2", diptych
Used t-shirts, red threads, wires, beads, marking pins, woodblock, velvet fabric, shadow boxes
With my previous installation “Gift,” I expressed the mysteries of meeting people at a certain time and a certain place, which do not look like coincidences. Based on this idea of "Gift," I created the assemblage diptych piece “Gifts, Unum.” Unum is “one” in Latin. This particular work expresses my pondering thought, “those above and those below appear to be separate from each other, but are actually one.” I collected some disused clothes from my friends and family to represent something belonging to someone influential to me. I braided them with wire and red thread, visualizing the ways people cross their paths for a reason. I assembled them in the shadow boxes, which represent treasure boxes to me. The inclusion of beads represents my wish to treasure the moment of meeting people that I consider as gifts. Marking pins, in Japanese called "waiting pins," are used to hold the beads in place, but also represent different tenses.