Miho Watanabe
PHOTOGRAPHER AND INSTALLATION ARTIST
Contact Miho
My art-making explores the views of Japanese diaspora artists, in reconnecting with my heritage and culture, and the way they bring this into my artworks consciously to represent the ‘between-ness’. Art-making for me is always about being aware of ‘between-ness’; that is, making the invisible subject ‘between-ness’ theoretically and technically visible, and becoming aware of it. “Awareness of Between-ness” is the doorway to the concealed realm. As a Japanese/Australian diaspora artist, I experiment with the real and non-real to the nature of identity when one is between cultures. I have been working as a professional commercial/editorial photographer, which led me to create my artworks using photography. My work creates photography as a means of memory and painting as a means of connection in between reality and the concealed realm. And the light is more important to deliver this ‘between-ness’ to be aware. And develop my practice in conjunction with photography, lighting, painting, space and time, to represent the invisible subject ‘between-ness’. I believe the meaning of space, time and mind are hidden in between-ness. The concept of ‘awareness of between-ness’ reflects a re-mix of influences on my life to identify the differences between cultures. And the methods of expression to recreate time, space and that which is in between in order to make the invisible ‘between-ness’ visible, and installations, interactive works, photography, lighting, painting and mixed media to engage the hidden subject to become visible.