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13. Kumiko Delaney

WINNER - Emerging Artist Award

Judges said, “Kumiko Delaney has recreated her memory of the love she feels when visiting her grandparents in Japan, particularly her grandmother’s home cooking transformed into a ceramic still life. This work playfully conjures the transience of memory, inevitable mortality and familial culturally specific expressions of nurturing and care.”

The Unwind in Nishitokorozawa, 2023

ceramic, wood, fabric

 

 

Visiting my grandparents in Nishitokorozawa and eating around their kotasu (dining table) is a cherished time for bonding, nourishment and unwinding. My grandmother's love transpires through her cooking. When we are apart, I must rely on connection through memory and the hope that I will see her again. The taste and smell of these dishes fade over time, to be revitalised when I am sitting in her presence again. Efforts to cherish these times together become overcrowded with the lingering fear of the unknown.

About the Artist

 

Kumiko Delaney has a Japanese mother and father of Irish descent. She lives on Gadigal Land in Sydney, NSW.

@808.902.818

www.kumiko.hotglue.me

 

 

Transcription

My art work is a reminder to cherish mundane moments and a love letter to my grandparents who live in Saitama, Japan. 

To create this installation I took inspiration from photos i took of the beautiful spread my grandma creates everyday, three times a day. I also used references of traditional Washoku which are everyday Japanese foods, particularly home cooking, that happen to look effortlessly beautiful and evoke an extreme nostalgia. I sculpted some foods to look warped or melted as a representation of cherishing a memory and trying your best not to forget certain feelings. 

This artwork tackles mortality with the importance of memory, family, connection and love language. Here I feel the presence of many people and many families that have walked these grounds. Food and connection are one of the few things we all have in common. 

I would like the viewer to consider slowing down and appreciating time. to not get too caught up with all the unavoidable life events and to understand the importance and feeling of sitting around a table with people you love. We will all miss it one day.