INDOOR 3

Transvisceral Border Series, 1997
Medium: Mixed, with cultivated fungus, natural latex and found materials incorporates odor, texture and time lapse elements. Dimensions: Varies with each installation/sculpture.
The focus of Transvisceral Borders is the human skin as both barrier and link to the external world. It focuses on the range of human relationships to each other but also to that in the external world. The range of human relationships range from the flaying of human skin to be used in lamp shades and book covers by the Nazis of WWII to the Irezumi subculture of Japan where prized artwork of tattoo artists’ on humans were collected by a special museum in Japan . Our relationship to nature and other species is exemplified in the two works “(H)ears Less, Knows Less” and “Silk Purse”. The purse is made of 7 pig’s ears found in pet food suppliers.

Drawing Breath, 1998
Medium: Sawdust, repurposed record player, rare earth magnets, wire and natural detritus materials Dimensions: 12’H x 4’W x 4’L
A kinetic installation in which the roots draw in the sand below. Movement is based on the magnetic field created by rare earth magnets circulating on a record player inside the box. One of three trees using recycled branches. Roots cast in natural latex.

Grass of the Other, 1998
Medium: Grass seed, soil, wire mesh and recycled chair Dimension: varies dependent on gallery space.
This is a time lapse installation based on the phrase “ The grass is greener on the other side.” The emotional root of the phrase is desire and so all of the words are related to that root cause for believing and pursuing the “other.” The images presented here are 2 days after installation.

This Bag Returns to Mother Earth, 1998
Medium: Found natural materials and cultivated fungus Dimensions: Each bag size of a paper lunch bag box bottom style.
The samples of the fungus lunch bags are for a larger installation that will expand the size of the installation to represent the food chain where each item in the following bag represents the food for the consumer in the preceding bag.

Haruko Okano. ENVIRONMENTAL WORK | INDOOR 4