Atsuko Nakamura Studio
アーティスト・中村厚子の公式ウェブサイト| Artist. Atsuko Nakamura’s official website
Inside Out of the Spirit
Installation 2014 branches, timbers, monk fabric, screws 8000×3000×3500mm
This work reflects my experience in Thailand during a month stay. I am interested in the diversity and mixture of Thailand. Bangkok is accelerated the modern development especially last 10 years, while many local people still have traditional lifestyle. More than 90 % of people are Buddhists, but they also appreciated Hindu and traditional Animism that is to worship spirits which called “Pii”. For instance, most Thai homes and places of business have a ‘spirit house’ on the site, where offerings are made to appease spirits that might otherwise inhabit their homes or workplaces, and sacred trees are swaddled with yellow, red and green organdie. Also, when I visited a temple in Ayutthaya, I saw the ritual that prayers connect monk yellow fabrics to one long, and put it on the shoulder of huge Buddha statue. Then, prayers grab the end of fabric and make a gesture of passing under the fabric. It was mysterious and special experience of “connected” to Buddha. The situation of the traditional culture in the modern development reminds me the Japanese situation just after the World War 2 that indigenous culture and religion are lost with the rapid growth of modern society. I really wish those culture will be preserved in the future, and reconnect to the spirits disappeared from Japan, thus I made life-like or praying hands shape sculpture and put the monk fabric on it.