Artist Mika Horie
Year: 2021
Medium: Cyanotype print on handmade Gampi Paper (Edition 1/10)
Dimensions: 6H x 8.5W in (unframed)
Blue Photography on Handmade Japanese Paper
Incorporating the sky of the town of Shiga and Kaga, Japan, origins of the Gampi branches and fibers used in her work, to sustain the medium and its historical root,. Indigo symbolizes the earth, plants, and creatures, which are part of the time that flows without a stop.
Artist Note
The artist's upbringing heavily influenced her interest in Man'yōshū (Japan’s oldest surviving poetry.) In celebration of these poems and the period that followed its success, reverence for living with nature took prominence. The artist's use of handmade Gampi papers come from the Kurakakeyama mountains, located between Kaga City and Komatsu City, of which she harvests herself. Through all the processes of paper-making, observing nature with my camera, and cyanotype printing by sunlight, Horie goes slowly deeper with each texture and image in her mind to create the compositions.
“I used to feel uncomfortable consuming paper materials every day. I learned that paper has been recording history and culture since ancient times and connecting to the present day. Since then,I have changed my process to using only the natural things that I am surrounded by. This way of creating also gives me the significant pleasure of escaping from materialism. I hope you feel the natural materials, floating time, nature, and freedom in front of you.” -Mika Horie
