John and June Allcott Gallery, Migiwa Orimo, Strangers’ Bundles: Hours of Woods

EXHIBITION DATES EXTENDED: Now open through February 25

Gallery Talk: January 25, 6-7 pm

Gallery Hours: 9-5 M-F

“Slippage” (or the points of disjunctions): interrupted continuity of land and time; the fragility of connection; mistakes and failures.

In whatever form “slippage” takes–physical, political, or cultural–we become sensors and experience the slippage as shifted sense of equilibrium.

In trying to regain balance, we notice, remember, observe, measure, witness, suspect, and probe. Some look at nature with inquisitive eyes; some pay attention to a subtle shift in use of language; some become activists; some bring themselves together as a community of learners.  

— The artist’s note following the 2011 Great Tohoku Earthquake and the Fukushima Nuclear Plant Disaster

Ten years later, at another point of disjunction (Global Pandemic), Migiwa Orimo revisits this notion of “slippage” and creates a six-piece installation, Strangers’ Bundles: Hours of Woods. Drawing upon her daily walks during the shutdown, Orimo set her sights on our relationship to nature from a slightly diagonal direction. The result is a rumination on nature, language, voice-over, temporary alignment of disparate thoughts, and a reflection on struggles, protests, memories, and “safe distance” –both in nature and society

An interdisciplinary artist, Migiwa Orimo primarily works in installation consisting of text, drawing, objects, video, and sound that explores the notions of gap, slippage, and “a realm of disjunction.” Using the concept of storage/archive as her framework, Orimo explores the relationship between public memory and private space by examining: how memories are shared and internalized; how they are stored and become stories; and, how memories and history collide.

A five-time recipient (’96/’04/’08/’13/’21) of the Ohio Arts Council Individual Artists Fellowship/Individual Creativity Excellence Award for her interdisciplinary art projects, she was awarded residencies at the Headlands Art Center in 2012 and SPACES Gallery’s SPACES World Artist Project in 2014. Her work has been shown extensively, including at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington DC; San Bernardino Art Museum, CA; and in Ohio, the Springfield Art Museum, Dayton Art Institute, OSU’s Urban Arts Space, Riffe Gallery (Columbus), Oberlin College’s Baron Gallery, and Weston Art Gallery (Cincinnati), apexart (NYC).

As a social justice activist, Orimo facilitates the People’s Banner Workshop and provides free banners to activist groups.

Orimo was born and raised in Tokyo, Japan. After receiving her degree in literature and studying graphic design in Japan, she immigrated to the US in the 1980s. Orimo lives and works in Yellow Springs, Ohio.

Artist website: https://migiwaorimo.com/home.html

Image credit: Nationality of Nature, courtesy of the artist