Let's talk about what we have

Yukari Kaihori’s work reconstructs and reimagines landscapes and scenes witnessed and experienced by the artist. Kahori is concerned with memory, especially in relation to time and space, so she allows emotion, mood, and the unreliability of memory to influence her work. The ephemeral nature of the lived environments is a key concern, demonstrated through constant transformations from moment to moment, process to process.

Working in oil on canvas, Kaihori has recently begun to incorporate embroidery into her works. The repetitive and time-consuming process of needlepoint allows reflection on the process of re-constructing remembered experiences. Traces of freely-applied oil paints contrast with controlled, tight lines of stitching in much the same way as we remember experiences; salient elements are remembered clearly while other details remain vague, blurred and irrelevant.

Kaihori says: “By using mix-media, I aimed that it will question the audience the purpose of making such a painting. The houses in ruins are somehow beautiful; however, it is not the purpose to re-create aesthetic work. This painting is a product but it is also an expression of an experience that has both certainty and uncertainly within the image.”

Kaihori’s interest is in the intersection between nature and culture; where landscape and human-scape collides. The series Let’s talk about what we have are based on scenes in the Christchurch Red Zone, where nature prevails in the ruins of former homes.