balance forward

I proudly made this work for InnerEye Arts’ Dhai Akhar multimedia online presentation.

Everyday we accumulate debts, make mistakes, and commit wrongdoings. We also make payments, contributions, and we do our best to survive. At the end, after all the calculations are done, what are the societal, political, and environmental conditions we are left with?  What kinds of knowledge, beliefs, and conditions of the environment are we passing on to the next generation? Have we done all we can do to ensure the future generations to survive and thrive? What is the balance forward that future generations will inherit from us?

This work was spurred to fruition due to racism that Black American Christian Cooper experienced birdwatching in New York City in May 2020. As someone who has also done field work and enjoys being in natural areas, I am wary of being alone in wilderness and encountering people who don’t believe I have the right to be here. I fear encountering racist acts like the one Christian Cooper experienced. As an alternative to the narrative of fearfulness, I wanted to make work that offers a vision of nothing extraordinary but one that ought to be passed on to the generations after us: love, racial equity, and access to an environment and all the organisms in it that are healthy and thriving. None of that should be extraordinary.

handstitched fabric and thread, microfilament, and gelliprint on paper by Reiko Fujii

Dimension- 36″ x 15″