A-lien Pacific
A couple of years ago, Royal Doulton produced a porcelain series called “Pacific". My partner brought two mugs back, saying I would love this series. The plate was highly influenced by Japanese design, and referenced the Pacific ocean in which I bathed daily in my childhood.
The Pacific was my mother. Whenever I came back to the ocean, happy or unhappy, she enveloped me in her comfort.
It has long been my dream to work on European-designed porcelain imagining the Pacific - to bring in my own knowledge of Pacific, the Japanese-American immigrants and their decedents on the same surface, and to create a dialog between the past and present. They are all unique pieces up till now. Porcelain is a link between Asia and West; It was integrated into Western culture through the silk road. Porcelain is a material that seems fragile and yet is strong, representing the life force of these Japanese- Americans and many people who cross the sea to find a better life, a survival. History of objects teaches us that for centuries, Every culture was made of mixture of savoir faire of different countries. People are behind the techniques and knowledge. When we understand that there is nothing but a pretense to think a country needs to protect their own land from outsider. Many things we use daily did not exist without other countries people and there is no unique country in the world and especially in Europe.
Transferred archive photographs from Lahaina, Maui , Hawai'i onto porcelain series " pacific " Royal Doulton. size :16 cm & 23 cm, transferred and fired by V- ceramics ( Montreuil, Paris)
July 2018
A-lien ? ( A-lien pacific & A-line Cuisine, A-lien sewing)
In autumn 2017, I saw an interview with the Japanese-American writer, Karen Tei Yamashita. I was touched by her saying she feels close to aliens. After the attack on Pearl Harbor in February 1941, Executive Order 9066 was issued. From that moment onwards, Japanese-Americans were considered ”Enemy Aliens”. Until the end of the war, Japanese from the west coast to the Colorado river, plus Community Leaders, were put into ten internment camps.
When we separate ‘Alien’ into two words, “ A- lien”, in French it becomes “to link”. I personify this link, “A-lien”, because without it I feel as if I do not exist. This word fascinates me because it carries opposite meanings: to be a stranger and to link. Every culture develops because of foreign elements, and migrants contribute largely to the evolution of every aspect of it, from food to objects of daily use. It shapes the perceptions and understandings that become contemporary culture. As a development from my Odyssey : reflect project, I am currently working on three projects that involve food, porcelain and sewing.
In autumn 2017, I saw an interview with the Japanese-American writer, Karen Tei Yamashita. I was touched by her saying she feels close to aliens. After the attack on Pearl Harbor in February 1941, Executive Order 9066 was issued. From that moment onwards, Japanese-Americans were considered ”Enemy Aliens”. Until the end of the war, Japanese from the west coast to the Colorado river, plus Community Leaders, were put into ten internment camps.
When we separate ‘Alien’ into two words, “ A- lien”, in French it becomes “to link”. I personify this link, “A-lien”, because without it I feel as if I do not exist. This word fascinates me because it carries opposite meanings: to be a stranger and to link. Every culture develops because of foreign elements, and migrants contribute largely to the evolution of every aspect of it, from food to objects of daily use. It shapes the perceptions and understandings that become contemporary culture. As a development from my Odyssey : reflect project, I am currently working on three projects that involve food, porcelain and sewing.