Artist Statement
On an Asialink Arts residency to Japan in 2018, Rei had the opportunity to learn more about her Japanese ancestors and the story of her Australian grandfather meeting her Japanese grandmother during the British Occupation in Japan after WWII. Her grandmother migrated to Australia as a Japanese war bride in 1953, then Rei’s mother was born in Southport in 1954, and was the first baby born in Queensland to a Japanese war bride.
Since this pivotal pilgrimage to Japan, Rei’s contemporary art practice has been a space for navigating this journey, researching and archiving cultural remnants of the family history. It has inspired a new direction in arts practice where silent narratives and cultural knowledge lost through intergenerational experiences of cultural assimilation are being captured and processed as a means of archiving Japanese Australian identity.
Rei’s ancestor, Tea Master Katagiri Sekishu, founded the Sekishu School of Tea Culture in 1665 where the tea ceremony was used as a setting for diplomatic discussions between Samurai and enemy generals. He was also a master of Bonseki – the Japanese art of creating miniature ephemeral landscapes on black trays using white sand, pebbles and small rocks.
Inspired by the desire to connect to this ancestral bonseki practice, this show references elements of Japanese garden design. The ground plane installation is inspired by the raked patterns in Japanese stone gardens, with circles of water enveloping the Koi carp fish, each representing one of the three generations of women in Rei’s family. In Queensland the koi carp is classed as an invasive species, reflecting on the harsh sentiments towards Japanese people in post-war Australia. Swimming against the current, the koi symbolizes courage, strength and perseverance, qualities observed within Rei’s grandmother and mother as they navigated instances of racial tension and cultural loss.
The series of wall-mounted bonsai trees reference plants growing at the Brisbane Botanic Gardens, the city where Rei’s mother was raised. These cultivated plants traditionally represent harmony between man and nature, and the dignified process of aging. Bonsai trees, like family oral histories, can live for up to 1000 years with enough care and attention. Each tree hangs upside down from the last hinge of the void it was cut from, refusing to be completely released from its origins. Rei’s grandmother spent most of her life assimilating into Australian culture, to protect her family from racial discrimination. Like these bonsai trees, the connection to Japan was never completely lost. The paper remnants scattered beneath each tree, symbolise cultural remnants saved within the family through oral histories and ornaments handed down to third and fourth generations. All pieces of the paper – cut-out, cut-from and discarded – are all valuable components of the whole work. This is representative of the complexity and beauty found within all parts of transcultural and diasporic identity.
Rei’s grandparent’s relationship has inspired this tranquil installation – honouring the gesture of peace and diplomacy between two former enemies and inviting the viewer to experience a moment of calm and contemplation. The work honours the contribution Japanese war brides have made to Australian culture and migration.
Since this pivotal pilgrimage to Japan, Rei’s contemporary art practice has been a space for navigating this journey, researching and archiving cultural remnants of the family history. It has inspired a new direction in arts practice where silent narratives and cultural knowledge lost through intergenerational experiences of cultural assimilation are being captured and processed as a means of archiving Japanese Australian identity.
Rei’s ancestor, Tea Master Katagiri Sekishu, founded the Sekishu School of Tea Culture in 1665 where the tea ceremony was used as a setting for diplomatic discussions between Samurai and enemy generals. He was also a master of Bonseki – the Japanese art of creating miniature ephemeral landscapes on black trays using white sand, pebbles and small rocks.
Inspired by the desire to connect to this ancestral bonseki practice, this show references elements of Japanese garden design. The ground plane installation is inspired by the raked patterns in Japanese stone gardens, with circles of water enveloping the Koi carp fish, each representing one of the three generations of women in Rei’s family. In Queensland the koi carp is classed as an invasive species, reflecting on the harsh sentiments towards Japanese people in post-war Australia. Swimming against the current, the koi symbolizes courage, strength and perseverance, qualities observed within Rei’s grandmother and mother as they navigated instances of racial tension and cultural loss.
The series of wall-mounted bonsai trees reference plants growing at the Brisbane Botanic Gardens, the city where Rei’s mother was raised. These cultivated plants traditionally represent harmony between man and nature, and the dignified process of aging. Bonsai trees, like family oral histories, can live for up to 1000 years with enough care and attention. Each tree hangs upside down from the last hinge of the void it was cut from, refusing to be completely released from its origins. Rei’s grandmother spent most of her life assimilating into Australian culture, to protect her family from racial discrimination. Like these bonsai trees, the connection to Japan was never completely lost. The paper remnants scattered beneath each tree, symbolise cultural remnants saved within the family through oral histories and ornaments handed down to third and fourth generations. All pieces of the paper – cut-out, cut-from and discarded – are all valuable components of the whole work. This is representative of the complexity and beauty found within all parts of transcultural and diasporic identity.
Rei’s grandparent’s relationship has inspired this tranquil installation – honouring the gesture of peace and diplomacy between two former enemies and inviting the viewer to experience a moment of calm and contemplation. The work honours the contribution Japanese war brides have made to Australian culture and migration.