Statement
I use ceramics as a record-making flipbook as a Japanese American hailing from middle America with an infinite curiosity making sense of an overwhelming world.
I view these pieces as pattern making couture fashion; layered with symbols, images, prose, mantras, quotes, poems, cartoons, etc. rendered in decorative slip and glazes referencing both Japanese studio ceramics and the greater East Asian diaspora’s ceramic traditions.
Influenced by high and low commodities, images, prose, poems, quotes, are strewn on hand built works transforming the clay into sculptural canvases. Shaking the baggage of ceramic tradition of art as ornamental object works are imbued with a sense of instantly built architectures serving as a means of communication.
These are sculptured canvases, always signed in a monogram or hankō of the surname of my mother and late grandmother with utmost pride.
The results- equal and opposite reactions to the growing presence of “high” technology in everyday life compounded by 2100 degrees of heat and pressure to produce fine glass relics to hold fast and persevere through that same overwhelming world.
I view these pieces as pattern making couture fashion; layered with symbols, images, prose, mantras, quotes, poems, cartoons, etc. rendered in decorative slip and glazes referencing both Japanese studio ceramics and the greater East Asian diaspora’s ceramic traditions.
Influenced by high and low commodities, images, prose, poems, quotes, are strewn on hand built works transforming the clay into sculptural canvases. Shaking the baggage of ceramic tradition of art as ornamental object works are imbued with a sense of instantly built architectures serving as a means of communication.
These are sculptured canvases, always signed in a monogram or hankō of the surname of my mother and late grandmother with utmost pride.
The results- equal and opposite reactions to the growing presence of “high” technology in everyday life compounded by 2100 degrees of heat and pressure to produce fine glass relics to hold fast and persevere through that same overwhelming world.
Glazed Porcelain, Glazed Stoneware,
String, Poplar, Particle Board, Acrylic, Lighting, Sand
Dimensions Variable
Left: Stills from Installation, Day (1 - 4), Night (5 - 7)
Below: Installation Videos, Accompanied Poem
I made these bells attempting to bring in some of the sounds I heard when I was night hiking up Mt. Takao with some members of the church my mother goes to.
There was a temple located about 2/3rds of the way up that had these chimes suspended that made a similar sound in the wind. With the translation to the installation, I wanted the sculpture to be participatory; the bells are sited at various heights 28 inches off the floor.
I paired this with porcelain slabs that were lit from below, the white ones revealing their translucency and the charcoal porcelain made the light refract on the ceiling. The two lower lit pedestals had porcelain slabs with this poem I originally saw as a part of a Comme des Garçons collection, a fashion label that my mother introduced me to. My late grandmother wore it, and my mother and I wear it today.
The installation is a garden of this sound memorializing my grandmother, who was the reason I pushed through undergraduate studies. Without her influence and her undying love and support, I don’t know what I would’ve done.
String, Poplar, Particle Board, Acrylic, Lighting, Sand
Dimensions Variable
Left: Stills from Installation, Day (1 - 4), Night (5 - 7)
Below: Installation Videos, Accompanied Poem
I made these bells attempting to bring in some of the sounds I heard when I was night hiking up Mt. Takao with some members of the church my mother goes to.
There was a temple located about 2/3rds of the way up that had these chimes suspended that made a similar sound in the wind. With the translation to the installation, I wanted the sculpture to be participatory; the bells are sited at various heights 28 inches off the floor.
I paired this with porcelain slabs that were lit from below, the white ones revealing their translucency and the charcoal porcelain made the light refract on the ceiling. The two lower lit pedestals had porcelain slabs with this poem I originally saw as a part of a Comme des Garçons collection, a fashion label that my mother introduced me to. My late grandmother wore it, and my mother and I wear it today.
The installation is a garden of this sound memorializing my grandmother, who was the reason I pushed through undergraduate studies. Without her influence and her undying love and support, I don’t know what I would’ve done.
IMPERIAL BOOMERANG
Ceramics
2026
Glazed Porcelain and Stoneware
“Garfield Serving Pot | I MUST CURB THIS TEMPER OF MINE”
Ceramics
2026
Glazed Porcelain and Stoneware, Bamboo
Glazed Porcelain, Glazed Stoneware, Bamboo