Mayumi Amada
"My work is about how art and beauty are a vital part of our own personal circle of life. I hope my work will reach the viewers’ mind and stimulate thought about how we use materials and how we live our lives."
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I am Japanese -- my cultural heritage informs my work. Living away from my home country and looking at it from a distance, I find many valuable characteristics in Japanese culture: in the ways of thinking, in the sense of value, and also in the arts, design, and in architecture. I also realize that eastern culture and western culture are much different than I previously thought.
Therefore I appreciate my culture much more and recognize it much clearer than before. I have been deeply immersed in and influenced by Japanese culture since I was born, and here I am. The philosophy of Zen, one of the sects of Buddhism, often gives direction to my creativity.
I often use recycled plastic materials such as plastic bottles and grocery bags. They are frequently transformed into a flower form. Making something beautiful from things considered as garbage creates a strong contrast.
Flowers and plants repeat their lives while nourishing the next generations, and recycled materials have exactly the very same aspect. I see both eternity and mortality in these materials, as I do in flowers and plants.
Recycled materials and a water theme led me to environmental art and it has become a very important aspect of my work in art. I recently read an article about a mushroom that can digest plastic. Inspired by this amazing news I created many mushrooms by crocheting strips of plastic grocery bags. Now the mushroom form become a new visual theme in my work. I believe that it has enormous possibilities to broaden and deepen my body of work.
The theme and use of recycled materials resonates deeply with the current situation in our world. But more importantly my work is about how art and beauty are a vital part of our own personal circle of life. I hope my work will reach the viewers’ mind and stimulate thought about how we use materials and how we live our lives.
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1. Doily of Foremothers, 2014 hand-cut plastic tarp 8.5 feet diameter There are more than 100 skulls in this doily. If one generation is twenty years, then this doily represents more than 2000 years of ancestors. Since all the lives of my maternal ancestors are living within my body, I created this artwork to show my respect and gratitude to them. The work extends beyond its physical presence, as the shadow creates another doily on the floor and wall.
2. Lighting the Pathway (Flower and Star), 2016 laser cut paper, light bulb, light fixture, mirror, electric cord diameter: 24" x 7.5" x 7.5" Though a doily is thought as out of date, it connects the past and the future. With the doily created by light, our ancestors guide the pathway to the future.
3. I wish I were THE mushroom (part), 2018-2020 Target Store and Cub Foods grocery bags.
dimension of the mushroom: 2.5" x 2" x 2" dimension of the whole installation varies
Plastic waste is one of our planet's major environmental concerns we are facing. Our lakes, rivers, and oceans have become dangerously contaminated detrimentally impacting plants, animals, and furthermore humans at the surface and in the depths. However, I read some hopeful articles. A fungus (a mushroom) that can digest plastic was found in Amazon. Inspired by this amazing news this work was created by crocheting strips of used plastic grocery bags.
4. from Head to Toe: using my life fully (detail), 2017 plastic bottles and caps diameter of the flower: 3.5” dimension of the whole installation varies Everyone has a moment of full bloom in his or her life, especially when they find a way to make the most of all their possibilities. These flowers made with plastic bottles show us their own way.
5. Flower Field (part), 2008 plastic bottle, acrylic tubing, blue LED light, wire, steel rod, washer
diameter of a flower: 4”, heights: 22” to 28“ dimension of the whole installation varies In the newspaper, I saw a photo of a “vegetable factory." Tomatoes were being produced in a clean modern factory. Large numbers of tomato saplings were planted not in the soil, but in fertilized clear water. Scenes like this were in Science Fiction movies and books several decades ago, but today they are becoming reality. I wanted to create something similar that symbolizes our future life with an image of organic life.
Real flowers and artificial flowers seem to be polar opposites, but they have something in common. Flowers in the natural world die and return to soil to nourish the next generation. The plastic flowers are also recycled and used to create the next generation.