Student designer Miharu Matsunaga created a series of stunning photographs titled “ten-ten” (dots). In order to illustrate the obvious yet often forgotten bond between man, woman, family, friend, adult, child and nationality, Matsunaga decided to painstakingly hand-draw hundreds of dots across the human body. The result is dazzling as it is obfuscating. The different races, ages and genders blur together on the canvas as if to say, we are one massive painting. Really gorgeous!
It reminds me of Mimi-nashi Hoichi (Hoichi the Earless), an old Japanese story that used to scare the bejesus out of me. As the legend goes, a priest tries to protect Hoichi from a ghost by painting inscriptions on his entire body, rendering him invisible to the ghost. However, the priest forgets to paint Hoichi’s ears! When the ghost returns the following night, Hoichi’s ears – the only visible part of his body – are torn off by the ghost.
I am consistently amazed by the talent coming out of young student designers. I came across Mihara Matsunaga while exploring the body of work produced for the 2011 senior thesis exhibition of students from Tama Art University (Tamabi).
See all our posts on student work.
