ARIZONA DREAM

In 2013, Keiko embarked on a trip to the west side of the United States. She travelled to Arizona, Utah, and New Mexico, learning about Native American culture. One of their core concepts comes within the importance of the number “four,” reflected in the cardinal directions of north, south, east and west. Everything around them was connected with something beyond the surface of their immediate surroundings, making Keiko think more about her own relationship with her environment. In 2015, Keiko presented the Arizona Dream series, using rubbings from her trip. The objects were either displayed within a box, or assembled in a form inspired directly by her time spent with Natives living in Sedona, Arizona.

GILDED BOX SERIES

In 2015, Keiko presented the Arizona Dream series, using rubbings from her trip, along with her Gilded Box Series at Gallery t in Surface of Being. The boxes began with stark, contrasting brand logos from the large corporations that created the product. Using acrylic to match the base colour of the box with the logo, the trademark began to merge with the box, even if it had itself been untouched by the paint. As the brand logo began to fade, it became just a box, with the branches representing specific moments and surfaces of being that remain distinct.

In daily life, we see the tree, and know there is bark, but what is lost is the intricacies in the barks pattern; the menial objects of daily life are also seen on a surface level due to its staple in an individual routine. The Gilded Box Series rediscovers the surfaces of daily life that had become merged into routine. Household objects such as her toothpaste box or case for her screwdrivers, all had layers that had become lost. By merging its physical appearance, she finds an underlying unity. As the surfaces come together, the connotation of these brands are erased and what remains is its existence.

The branches in both Gilded Box and in Arizona Dream represent the layers beyond the surface. Whereas the Gilded Box series represented a more urban environment, seeking what is underneath labels and daily objects, Arizona Dream takes nature as a whole, and seeks to look beyond that in its core philosophy in unity.