Are We What We Are?

I started my own art gallery in the town in forested mountains of Aichi, Japan, together with a natural dye studio. The two rooms were originally classrooms in a nursery school, which was closed down a few years ago. The title of the first exhibition at the gallery is "Are We What We Are?"

Our minds deep inside that unfold when we are spinning yarn calmly by hand. Our thought inside our heads dives deep when we are weaving weft yarns side to side in a repetitive motion. When the hands are at work, our consciousness is freed and begins to wander and expand infinitely in some profound domain within us. Even as technology advances and computers take over human work, even as AI evolves and expands the scope of what it can learn, what are the things we do not want to surrender? What are the things we humans want to do ourselves? What is it that makes us who we are? What is our joy? This exhibition explores and expresses such themes.