Born in Japan and now working and living in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, Yukari 海堀 Kaihori’s work develops an interest in the More-than-Human-World and draws on practices located in Japanese folk animism, to consider the life-force in materials and things by building on a material practice of respect and awareness of the immediate environment.
Returning to Tāmaki Makaurau from a short visit to Japan in early 2023, a chance encounter made Kaihori aware of a connection between Japan and Aotearoa through iron sand extraction and heavy industry. Immediately identifying this chance encounter as a moment of ‘En’ (a Japanese spiritual term likening to chance, karma or fate), Kaihori follows this thread through to a materially-led inquiry around the intersection between the natural and human-made.
Directly listening to and learning from materials by spending time with them in the studio, Kaihori draws parallels with Japanese theorist Keiji Iwata on the theory of animism; “If you want to learn about bamboo, you need to listen to bamboo. If you want to learn about pines, you need to listen to pines.” [1]
Working with hand-made ceramics that animate natural processes, cast sculptural objects of organic matter sourced from around the Te Tuhi premises and low grade iron ore with 57 per cent iron by weight and 7.6 per cent titanium dioxide, two sides of the moon imagines a life-force within materials, considering where the essence of materiality begins and ends.
The artist would like to acknowledge and thank Taini Drummond for her help with this project.
[1] Iwata, Keiji. 草木虫魚の人類学 アニミズムの世界 [Soumokuchigyo no Jinrui gaku, Aminizumu no Sekai] Anthropology of Soumokuchigyo: The Animism World, (Tōkyō: Kodansha, 1973).
