White Bird Parabola

White Bird Parabola

Mixed Media Installation

Chiyoko Myose

Artist Statement

      I identify myself as a sojourner, a person who stays in a place temporarily.  A sojourner is like a traveler who moves from one place to another without a place to settle down.  It resembles a white bird flying in the air.  When you look at a white bird flying, it stands out in its surrounding landscape of different colors.  In the Japanese language, we often express this kind of scene metaphorically as “The white bird looks like it never gets dyed by any colors of the surrounding landscape”.  This expression of “never getting dyed by other colors” is also used idiomatically to express people’s condition of not getting adjusted to or not being influenced by the environment.  A sojourner is like an isolated white bird flying, without getting dyed by other colors.  

     With this particular installation art piece, I expressed this feeling of a sojourner like a white bird.  The component with multiple “white feather balls” creating a parabola-like shape in the air represents the locus of the journey of a white bird.  Each ball is a separate point, but they are creating one line together.  Because its shape also looks like an “infinity” symbol, this journey can be read as an endless ongoing matter. 

     I placed one chair underneath the parabola structure to create an introspective image as a whole.  Also, the chair represents a place to rest.  By scattering feathers and feather balls on the chair and the floor, I expressed my spiritual journey in frequenting this place to rest. 

     The sojourner travels just like an isolated white bird flying endlessly.  Is the white bird sad?  To me, it looks like flying with strength and nobility.  The white bird continues to fly in the air with dynamic movement and constant rhythm.