TERASIA Artist Interview Vol. 4: Kamizu (Artist and Art Therapist)
The artist Kamizu joined TERASIA from Myanmar. After the coup d’état in February 2021, Kamizu began creating paper masks based on the faces of victims, working under a pseudonym and appearing behind an avatar for her safety. What does she think about and how does she feel as she continues her creation in the rapidly changing situation in her country? We spoke to her about her artistic practice.
Why the Focus on Life and Death?
Kamizu’s work spans a broad range of activities, from painting, drawing, and other art projects to workshops and programs concerned with healing through art. How did she come to explore the themes of life and death?
“Personally, I’ve been interested in the topic of death for a long time, and this interest partly derived from a Buddhist perspective. There’s a sense in Buddhism that all the meditation and training one does in life are a way of preparing for one’s death. What would you think about in the moment of death? How much would you be able to concentrate on that moment? Those matters influence your next life. With those ideas in mind, there’s a wish to accept the final moment in the best condition possible—and that kind of thinking was what interested me.”
In Myanmar, the Covid-19 pandemic broke out in 2020, followed by the military coup d’état in 2021.
“So many people died very suddenly. Under the Covid-19 circumstances, there were stories about people not having the chance to see their deceased families, or arranging a proper burial. I felt a keen, renewed interest in what one thinks about or can think about in one’s final moments, as well as how one can arrange and prepare oneself for that point in time.”
How to live, and how to die—and the Buddhist thought that coexist with those questions—are themes that perfectly overlap with ideas that TERASIA seeks to explore. When the height of the Covid-19 pandemic passed, Kamizu encountered TERASIA and got involved.
“During the pandemic, I was volunteering as a counsellor, and as I came into contact with life and death more and more in my daily life, I was drawn to that theme. Except Covid is essentially a natural disaster, not something brought about purposefully by humans. In contrast, when the military coup (something caused by humans) occurred, my way of thinking and what I did changed dramatically. In other words, I started to make those masks of ‘Fallen Heroes.’”
Making Masks: Seeing, Touching, Shaping
Kamizu has a background in visual art. Before she began making masks, she was already using various media in her artworks.
“I had some opportunities, such as artists’ residencies overseas. During those times, I visited all kinds of museums and saw artworks in different media, so I’d experimented with various forms of expression like performance, installation, and mixed media. I liked making paper cut-outs and folding paper, so I gradually came to focus on installations that mainly use paper, both cutting and working with them in other ways.”
Kamizu looks back at her initial response to the military coup in February 2021.
“At first, we—not just me, but also other artists—didn’t know what to do or where to start. We couldn’t do anything, and we couldn’t make any art. Sometimes I felt very depressed or powerless, and I also felt a restless anxiety like I was sitting on a boat and just watching it sink.”
When the number of victims surpassed thirty to forty people, Kamizu began making the masks of “Fallen Heroes,” choosing paper as her material. They were masks representing the people who lost their lives fighting for freedom from the terror and oppression of the military junta.
“In the beginning, I was looking for something I could do at home, and I tried making one mask to start with. I was already experimenting with making masks in response to the Covid pandemic. But those weren’t portraits of specific people, and besides, I had never even drawn a portrait of anyone before. So at first, I wasn’t sure if I could really do it. But I myself also needed something that I could concentrate on, something to work on, so I gave it a try.”
“One thing I didn’t want to do was to make the act of creating these masks something very sad or dark. Of course, it was deeply saddening to learn about the people who passed away, as I gathered and read details about them. But I was looking for a way to generate some kind of strength, energy, or motivation out of this extremely negative experience. Something that enables people to move forward. I was thinking about things like that as I began this project.”
Each mask in the “Fallen Heroes” project is created with a single sheet of paper, folded into a three-dimensional shape. Kamizu makes each of them by hand based on a photograph of the person, while reading about what kind of lives they had been leading, as well as when, where, and how they died.
“Once I made one or two masks, I thought I might be able to do this after all. I got back my confidence a little, and those heroes also gave me energy. When I learned about their stories, it was extremely tragic, very sorrowful. Even though I felt those emotions, the process also gave me some kind of fuel at the same time—it kindled something like a fire inside me.”
“They were innocent people who lost their lives for this purpose. They sacrificed their lives. It made me think that those of us who are still alive must do something, anything, to keep moving forward.”
“Making these masks was also a healing process for me. I studied their photographs closely, comparing their faces with the shapes I was making, and I felt as if I was touching their faces. Through that process, I was able to take those terrible events and grief, and turn it into something a little more positive inside me, like energy or motivation.”
A Tribute to the Fallen Heroes: An Exhibition as Part of a Revolution
In May 2022, Kamizu collaborated with the TERASIA Japan team to put on an exhibition titled, “Masking/Unmasking Death.” Out of all the masks she had created, she sent one hundred to Japan, and TERASIA’s Sakata and Watanabe, along with the curator Haruka Iharada, led the efforts to prepare an installation.
“First of all, there was a discussion over whether or not to display the artworks just as they were. I didn’t want anyone to think that I made the masks in order to have an exhibition, and as I mentioned earlier, the project began when I was searching for something I could do for the people who lost their lives, and there was an element of healing for me personally. The Japan members and I had lengthy discussions about whether an exhibition was the right thing to do. Eventually, we arrived at the idea that maybe this can be a small part of the revolution, or a tribute to the fallen heroes to honor their memories even more. In the end, we decided to hold the exhibition. So I wouldn’t call it Kamizu’s exhibition—it’s an ‘Exhibition for the Fallen Heroes.’”
The 3D archive offers a virtual experience of the installation at the venue.
During the exhibition, Kamizu led a few workshops with the visitors to the venue in Japan. How did she feel when she witnessed the reactions and feedback of Japanese people from her home in Myanmar?
“My voice is small, but I felt that it reached the audience. The exhibition and my project conveyed the message that innocent people passed away, and continue to lose their lives, due to the coup d’état and the military junta. It might be a small contribution, but I think we were able to communicate that.”
Some of the masks portray Kamizu’s relatives and friends. She also told us about the painful, difficult process of creating the masks of “Fallen Heroes.”
“A friend, who was a poet, died at Christmas in 2021. He and I used to work together on projects. I heard that at the time, he was in a forest. I don’t know if he was in hiding, or if he was part of some kind of armed resistance of the people for democracy, but I heard by word of mouth that he wanted to get in touch with me. It was dangerous for him to contact me directly from his phone, so I was trying to give him my number through a different route somehow, but then the news came two or three days later that he passed away. I grieve for every person who died, of course, but making his mask took an especially long time, and I also had to stop other activities I was doing. I couldn’t focus on anything else, and I myself needed a break. It was a powerful experience.”
Art as a Tool for Healing
At the workshops during the exhibition, Kamizu spoke with the visitors at the venue and guided them to face their own deaths. It was a conversation, but also a time of self-reflection—it could even be called art therapy. In conclusion of our interview, we asked Kamizu about her activities as an art therapist.
“It’s generally accepted that art itself has a therapeutic effect, like mindfulness. Right now, I am engaging with cancer patients through art. I’m using art as a healing tool for them to feel nourished emotionally and help alleviate their suffering.”
The questions that Kamizu spoke of in the beginning—how we prepare for our last moments, and how we accept our death—and her interest in humanity’s views of life and death are also closely connected to her work as an art therapist.
“I help the patients explore their own feelings, or their bodily sensations that derive from psychological sources, through art. Of course, it’s not as though art can cure their diseases. But by encouraging the patients to individually reflect on themselves, engage in various exercises, and talk about different things, their resilience increases. That’s a result that we’ve seen from our project. Also, our research found that, while one hundred percent of our patients felt fear or anxiety about death at first, that percentage decreased in varying degrees after they took part in our art therapy activities.”
Kamizu herself, more than anyone, has experienced the potential of art to heal her mind and body, and turn things around in a positive direction through the process of making the masks. Seeing, touching, using hands to make something, as well as having conversations and reflecting on the self—perhaps those acts are exactly what Kamizu has been doing in her long career as an artist.
“I believe we can calm our emotions or feel more at peace, and reflect on our inner selves, through art or making something; I’ve really experienced that myself. Death is a sensitive topic, but art can help us contemplate it and prepare to die in a better way. I think that’s one contribution of art.”
(Interview: Mikiko Endo / Article: Saori Azuma / English translation: Yui Kajita)
Editor’s note: This interview was conducted in June 2022. Since the outbreak of the coup d’état, the military junta’s oppression has worsened, and more than 3,200 citizens have fallen victim to it (source: https://aappb.org/). On April 11th, 2023, the military of Myanmar targeted a village in the north-western Sagaing region in an airstrike, killing more than 160 people, including about 20 children.
Kamizu
Kamizu is an artist and art therapist who has pursued a career in visual art for over two decades. Actively involved in numerous domestic and overseas art projects and workshops over that time, she strongly believes that art can bring peace and mindfulness to anyone. Her philosophy is that every human being is an artist from a different perspective; it is just that some do not notice this themselves. She hopes art can be a platform to interact with people and connect them to themselves, to each other, and to nature as part of an emotional journey. Her works are research-based, and extend beyond painting and drawing. Kamizu has presented four solo exhibitions to date in Myanmar, Japan, and Malaysia. In addition, she has participated in numerous international art festivals, art fairs, and artist residencies. Her works have been featured in more than twenty group exhibitions at venues in Myanmar, Austria, Japan, Hong Kong, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore. She is also one of the founders of Expressive Therapy Space, where she facilitates and runs art and healing workshops and programs.
Saori Azuma
Saori Azuma is an editor and writer. Her work spans a broad range of activities, such as editing documentations on art projects, conducting research for and managing various conceptual programs, producing theatre pieces, and organizing drama/art projects outside the theatre.
https://www.imatheater.com/
Yui Kajita
Yui Kajita is a translator, illustrator, and literary scholar, currently based in Germany. She completed her PhD in English Literature at the University of Cambridge. Shortlisted for the 5th JLPP International Translation Competition and longlisted for the John Dryden Translation Competition, she translates prose fiction, poetry, children’s books, folktales, and texts on art. Her publications include "Walter de la Mare: Critical Appraisals" (co-edited, 2022).
https://yuikajita.com
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