Japanese artist Keiko Miyamori divides her time between New York and Japan. But when the the global pandemic struck earlier this year her exhibitions in Japan got cancelled and she found herself stranded in New York. On that fateful day in April she began making tree rubbings and encasing them in boxes.
‘”I Am Still In New York”‘ is a collection around resilience during the time of the Coronavirus pandemic,” says Keiko Miyamori, who uses natural materials like handmade washi paper and charcoal to create tree rubbings, which she then uses to wrap natural and manmade objects. And for 125 days she continued to make rubbings in her neighborhood, even as the city’s response intensified. The rubbings are a testament to the dichotomy between humanity and nature within an urban environment.
118 of Miyamori’s encased rubbings are on display at Whitebox Gallery in New York as part of a group show, Exodus V: Aesthetics in the Political, featuring the work of Japanese female artists. The show, curated by Kyoko Sato, is on display through December 6, 2020.
