“Awareness of Between-ness”
Katami: once a possession of the deceased
Between-ness is an ‘invisible’ subject to explore, and the existence of ‘between-ness’ requires ‘things’ that are not in between, and without these ‘things’ there will be no ‘between’. I came across these ‘things’ as materials and the immaterial and to became aware of ‘between-ness of materials and the immaterial.
Since I have lived in Sydney, I lost few of my relatives back in Japan whose funerals I could not attend. I chose the materials for this research ‘Katami’ which were once a possession of now dead relatives or close friends. Katami is Japanese word and it is something Japanese people keep for a memento or remembrance of the dead. It has materiality and immateriality within it, since Katami are material but also Katami reminds us of memories, histories, and emotions.
I am using photographs and painting mixed media to explore this invisible subject ‘between-ness’ and to make it visible. It is not bringing the reality of the photographs into a painting, but rather bringing paint/ colour into the photographs to recreate emotion and the connection that I had with the subject. I leave some reality/aspect of the Katami’s materiality from thin layers of photographs, and colour/form layers to add my vision of ‘between-ness’. Colour is treated as language of emotion as inexplicable by words. Layers of colour creating muddiness into the colour is in relation to Sabi /rusting things being a metaphor for rusting memories.