Lifescape (SAR-SARECHA)
2009
approx. 200 x 250 cm
(overall dimensions vary in installation)
Photocopied imprints on paper, threads, plexi-glass
*realized during the residency in International Artist Village Camp in SAR:
http://sowingseed.wordpress.com/workshop/
As a way to contact people individually and share personal moments beyond
one-sided relationship of being a guest and a villager, I began my project by
visiting individual homes in the village to ask for their participation, to physically
take a print of their palms with a line called "lifeline", that in the palm-reading
tradition, represents ones vitality and the length of ones life. My intention was to
work with elements that I find in the village to realize some kind of a landscape
where individual lives as well as generations are connected, while at the same time
emphasizing difference in condition of each palm - the variety of individual lives.
A collection of palm prints, including ones from the participating artists, reflects a
particular moment in the village whilst implying more abstract scale of time; a lifetime.
All the lifelines are stitched together as one connected line by many different people
with threads taken out of leftover fabrics of clothing worn by the villagers, obtained from
a local tailor. The stitched line, in some parts straight and even, and in other parts
winding and irregular, shows a personal touch of individual hands involved
in the making, that became an essential element which gives the work
"a once-in-a-lifetime" texture.
滞在先のビレッジでは、まず一訪問者と一村人という距離感を、より個人的な関係に
近づけ、願わくば私的な空気感を共有するきっかけを得るために、村の民家を
一軒ずつまわり、家や道ばたで出会う人々に挨拶さながら、一人一人の手に触れながら、
手形印をもらう。手のひらに刻まれている生命力や寿命を示すといわれる生命線を、
村の仕立て屋で手に入れた、人々の衣服の端布から取った糸で一本の線に縫い繋ぐ。
「今」と「一生」という二つの時を孕む手形は、単色に統一され、個々の特徴が
強調されると同時に、性別や世代、身分の分ちを緩やかに混ぜ合わせる。
たくさんの人の手によって繋がった生命線もまた、様々な縫い手の癖が、
縫い目に直に現れ、一度きりの質感を与えている。
○○○
some source of inspiration
leftover fabrics of clothing worn by the people in SAR
acquired from a local tailor shop
to take out threads for stitching lifelines
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