布インスタレーション/ Fabric Installation

2017

ウィラメット大学には姉妹校である東京国際大学からの留学生が毎年来る。この大学で日本人ともアメリカ人とも過ごすうちに、文化って混ざるとめっちゃおもろいんやなーと感じた。常識が通じへんし、新しい発見が毎回ある。そんな楽しくて予知しにくい出来事を布で表現する作品。アメリカ的な柄と日本的な柄の布切れを参加者に結んでもらう。神社でおみくじを結ぶように。そうすることで文化も、参加者のみんなも結ばれていく。２０１７年度ウィラメット大学美術学部卒業展示会「Collective Query: Drawing Connections」出展作品。

Willamette University has a unique campus where a large group of Japanese students live and study together with the Willamette students through the American Studies Program (ASP). Through my engagement with both the Willamette and the ASP communities I have experienced the thrilling interactions that arise when American and Japanese cultures collide. This work investigates these joyful and sometimes unpredictable occurrences by tying together American and Japanese designed fabrics to form a soft sculpture. The act of tying strips of fabric is partly influenced by the tying of the fortune telling paper in Japanese shrines, an action that is believed to form a bond between a person and the gods. In Japanese the word musubu means to physically connect, but also to form relationships with other existences. As people tie pieces of fabric in this piece they are being bonded with other participants. Displayed at Collective Query: Drawing Connections, the 2017 Willamette University Senior Art Major Thesis Show.