Japanese mulberry paper (washi), wood, light

Each 48” x 30” x 36” (122 x 76 x 91 cm)

The first of these two sculptures emerged from reflections on my own personal relationship with Hawai’is largest mountain, Mauna Kea. Living in its presence for decades, I have always been sensitive to the numinous energy of the landform. My relationship with Mount Fuji in Japan began much later in 2016, when I visited the legendary mountain and was awestruck by a similar silent intensity. It felt as if the two mountains spoke to me with the same language beyond words.

The voids within each sculpture are informed by the mountains’ topographic contour lines: The mountain’s physicality has been removed, with the remaining paper left to represent the atmosphere or apparent emptiness which surrounds it. This open space suggests corporeality: the interconnection between that which lies inside of my own body, and the way I experience the formless energy of the landform itself.