TERRARIUM -with manual printing- MARIKO SAKAMOTO

Exhibition with Marika Sakamoto
11/3 – 3/4 – 2020
Kontakta Omnikvariatet för aktuella öppettider

A terrarium is usually a sealable glass container containing soil and plants, creating a unique environment for plant growth and ecosystem within the container.    In this exhibition, the artist created the art pieces with gathering and combining fragments of her interests, cultural backgrounds, experiences and knowledge from various fields, and expressed the integrated ideas and images with the methods of manual printing as screen print and a Japanese traditional pour-dyeing technique called 注染 (Chusen). These hand-work printing techniques deliver unique effects and tastes to the works distinguished from raw hand-drawing or mass printing by machine due to their processes and materials, which is just as the glass container of a terrarium keeping an individual environment of its inside and presenting it to the outer world through the glass.
Artist’s Statement:

Born in an old historical city called Kagoshima, Japan, it was natural for me to have been interested in its local cultures and mixture of religions as animism, Shinto, and Japanese Buddhism. Also, because of my physical illness and the educational belief of my parents, the only entertainment I was allowed in my childhood was reading literature, science, history, and sci-fi books from the library. I was not allowed to experience any pop cultures such as video games, animations, or comics, and the only chance I got to read a comic magazine was the annual visit of a dental office. My social environment as friends was also carefully controlled by my parents though they were not at home until evening because of their work. This environment helped developing my habit to structure my own world in my mind and stay in there even after I became an adult and free to access whatever interests me. In studying art as a student in Konst Extra Course in Sigtuna Folkhögskola, I started to learn how peoples’ artistic thoughts and perspectives are so variable and recognized how I have created mine. In this exhibition, I hope to showcase some of my ”bildvärld” in my terraria.