Banners, Blankets, Nobori
This work was made as a meditation on the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and Tsunami.
There are more than 250,000 hand-sewn stitches in this work.
Think of this repetition as a mantra for the hands.
The hand-quilting process was executed by the artist alone. It was completed in 2018.
*Tairyo bata were used in Japan to make ship-to-shore announcements of a fishing vessel's return to shore with a big catch. Today tairyo bata are still hand painted, one-of-a-kind flags but they are more commonly used to decorate fishing vessels on their maiden voyages or on other celebratory events such as the new year. The text on this flag includes the name of the vessel and is written in the large white kanji. It may be loosely translated as, "Great Longevity."