Capsule in Bush
Billboard by Mami Takahashi
September and October 2016
As part of Beyond the barrier of sound and soon, of light
This photograph, part of the Capsule series, sees the artist tucked within a bush, behind the crinkly reflective surface of a small capsule made of mirror film. Her body, largely obscured save for her hands, which poke out from the bottom of the capsule and serve as a stabilizing force, is removed from the sidewalk traffic, retreating into the bush. For Takahashi, this gesture serves as a defensive mechanism in the context of reacting to a culture foreign to her own, one which facilitates feelings of invisibility within it. Yet, her choice to be invisible here is a form of agency; when the invisible can be seen, a space for renegotiating those terms is created.
Mami Takahashi received her MFA in Contemporary Studio Practice from Portland State University in 2013. She earned a BFA in Japanese painting from Joshibi University of Art and Design (Japan) where she was awarded a prize for her thesis work. Takahashi also obtained an Associate of Fine Art in Aesthetics from Aoyama-gakuin Women’s College (Japan). Her works has been collected and exhibited internationally.