Still Life 2023 x Shiroishi Washi
2023

In the "Still Life Series," the use of washi paper emphasizes the potential of traditional craftsmanship in contemporary artistic practice. This exploration not only enriches my work but also provides compelling commentary on perception, reality, and the interaction between the tangible and the virtual. 

You may proceed with the research on rice paper in my third Artist in residence in Zao, Japan by clicking the button below.
 

Research Brief

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Shiroishi Washi and Rice Paper: Material Memory and Translucent Space

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This research explores Shiroishi washi, a traditional handmade Japanese paper from Shiroishi, alongside broader forms of so-called rice paper, as material, cultural, and conceptual foundations for contemporary installation practice. Rooted in my ongoing investigation of materiality, embodied space, and fragile infrastructures, this project examines paper not simply as a surface, but as structure, membrane, and metaphor.

 

Washi, made primarily from kozo fibres, embodies resilience within delicacy. Its translucency, tensile strength, and visible fibre network hold histories of communal labour and intergenerational knowledge. During the residency, I studied traditional papermaking processes, engage with local makers, and investigate how fibre, water, and touch shape the final material form. I am particularly interested in how thinness can hold strength, and how permeability can become a spatial condition.

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In my previous works, paper has functioned as both support and subject, mediating light, framing absence, and suggesting states of vulnerability and endurance. Expanding this research through direct engagement with Shiroishi washi allows me to deepen my understanding of paper as an architectural skin: a boundary that filters, rather than divides.

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