This piece titled “Bags” is installed with the old bags that were used 100 years ago in the area of Aomori, the northern region of Japan. The old bags were mended repeatedly showing that it was used for many years as fabrics were precious at that time.
The images of hands moving through liquid are embroidered on this piece. Related to that, the threads running down behind the cloth seem as if they are about to be scooped up again and again by another hand.
53 words are stitched onto bags and yet the bag bottoms are ripped so that their contents are spilling out. 53 stitched words are: “I, nature, rule, share, power, prophecy, obey, friendship, equality, category, complete, wealth, state, evil, reign, love, unity, grown-up, identical, split, enlighten, nation, possess, nationality, curse, god, time, liberty, rational, capital, incantation, self, name, you, origin, divide, classify, difference, science, inherent, subjective, kinship, hegemony, function, permit, family, humanity, several gods, story, home, absolute, obvious, and blood.” The scene appears in my head over and over again, in which the bag bottom breaks and its contents spill out. Another scene is that contents are so much that they overflow from the bag. Bags have several functions. They enable a number of things to be put together, distinguished from one another, labelled, and easily managed. Thus, for example, they can be seen as an extension of our body. Bags are supposed to function, as they should, and yet, somehow the bag bottom splits and its contents spill out one after another. → to continue reading, please visit the artist statement “A Bag With / Without Function” (2008).