Title: HOPE ISLANDS

Location: Shokoji Temple in Haraizumi, Japan

Artist Collaboration: Celeste Amparo Pfau & Yi-Ling Tseng 2018

 

Artist Statement:

 

An island is a self-contained world.

An island is a  place you may never want to leave.

 

An island can be a fertile and diverse womb.

 

We all come from metaphorical, or actual islands.

 

The island of our mother, The island of our family, The island of our neighborhood, The island of our town, The island of our city, The island of our culture and ethnicity, and more.

 

Now the world is connected on an international scale. Many of our clothes, food, cars, goods, natural resources, energy come from a myriad of places around the world. Every country has to deal with climate change and with each other’s pollution on land as well as in the water.

 

Despite the many negative things we can and have to think about, we also have to embrace each other’s differences, and the potential GIFTS we can exchange with one another if we respect each other and slow down enough to truly listen, allowing for opportunities to grow sustainably.

 

How can we embrace being GLOBALLY connected but also FULLY EMBRACE OUR LOCAL community? What are ways we can support one another in small scale and large scale ways?

 

Cell phone technology, the internet, social media,  and ability to travel cheaply has allowed us to cross-pollinate our islands, and create life experiences that would not have been possible a generation ago.

 

These new opportunities are  revealing to us how many different, equally true “realities are happening at once”

 

It is our wish for you to know that all of the islands we come from connecting in a beautiful root system underneath us. This ART installation honors and celebrates all people, and is especially interested in paying respect to the MOTHER. When a mother is growing a baby inside her, There is a Placenta, which is like a very fertile island that connects to the baby through an umbilical cord. Support and Love from your friends and family are essential, even if you are busy, make time to be supported and to support the people you love!

 

We are all connected by invisible chords. We hope you feel comfortable in the space, please relax, meditate, take a nap, sit in the special nest or swing. Have a beautiful and open conversation with a stranger, you never know where it will take you, but most of the time you will see a piece of yourself inside of the other person, and know that your world connects with their world in inexplicably beautiful and complicated ways.

 

• Written by Celeste

 

Details:

 

Hope Islands is a collaborative Art Installation that was created by Artists Yi-Ling Tseng from Taiwan and Celeste Amparo Pfau from the USA. ( additional help and support either with helping install or donating materials…..came from Kobe the electrician, Shiba the Dairy Farmer, Kimiko, who donated the fabric, Chieko Nakase, Hoshi Masaharu, Kazuya for helping strip wires, Shinobu for helping take care of Shin Chan, and Yuko Hatori for helping install and create the swing, and Shigeko for opening and taking care of the temple)

 

Yi-Ling created the beautiful Mandalas out of Rope which looks like an Archipelago of Hope. Yi-ling also created the wire “DNA” and also created the little wire birds perched around the space. Celeste created the island in the middle as well as made the prints on fabric and paper. With the Help of Hoshi and Yiling, Celeste created the Nest that is in the center of the room, please feel free to sit inside of it and meditate. Celeste, Yuko, and Hoshi created the swing or “ suspended island”