Newborn clothing is sometimes represented with the gentle image of a bird’s egg. However, I do not give birth through eggs, so this image diverges from the intense reality of childbirth.
I expressed this through soft, multilayered overlapping of newborn clothing.
The same can be said for the imagery of childcare. Like childbirth, childcare involves tremendous burden and transformation for the maternal body, and life-or-death moments. The “gentle” imagery meant to “protect without breaking” may sometimes hinder concrete support when mothers are struggling.
This work uses discarded clothing, once worn by a newborn, to pose questions about nature and family. I recreate “The Ugly Duckling” story like strata, using soft discarded cloth layers of various emotions and environmental issues. If I were the mother of this duck, not the swan mother, I would lose my head. In the face of environmental issues, can one care for a child that is not my own? We must address environmental issues for the sake of family problems like these as well.
I will participate in the “The 2025 Nature Art Cube Exhibition“
https://kintominami.com/exhibition/nature-art-cube-exhibition/