The Barns-Graham Award enabled me to set my own travel in Japan, fulfilling a lifetime ambition. I travelled for six weeks exploring ancient and contemporary culture, the architecture, art venues, museum collections and exhibitions. I also took part in a group exhibition in Tokyo mainly made up of Japanese artists. The natural affinity I felt towards Arte Povera and Japanese Mono-Ha art movements deepened and strengthened, and the Mono No Aware and Wabi-Sabi aesthetics within my art practise were nurtured, consolidated and validated.
In this installation, ‘The Wave and the Sea are One’, I wanted to convey a sense of the passage of time since the award in a multi-dimensional layered way - artworks alongside selected collected fragments, retained objects and personal iconography gather to accommodate a variety of converging narratives.
