MOMOKO USAMI

ABOUT

momokousami.shichihuku.com

BIO

CV

MOMOKO USAMI

Japanese, b. 1980, Japan
lives and works in Barnard, MO
Pronouns (she/her)

Momoko Usami received a BFA and an MFA from Kyoto City University of Art in Kyoto, Japan, and moved to the United States in January 2008. A resident artist at Lillstreet Art Center in Chicago in 2009-2010, Momoko went on to establish her personal studio in the countryside near Kansas City, Missouri, where she started Art Farm in 2014, hosting small art classes for the community. Momoko draws inspiration from many things, including Japanese painting from the Edo period, dreams, and daily encounters on the street. Her unique, playful, and often interactive ceramic works have been shown in the United States, Canada, and Japan.

ON HER WORK

Vision and Time are the two unspoken agreements to share the world you live. At the same time, they are very obscure and ambiguous. They are affected by his or her own background, memory, preference, or a feeling, colors, and temperature at the moment. Therefore, images in the real world are always fluid and beguiled; there is no frame and no ending. I attempt to express my interest in how people choose their own view. Real world images are full of temporal beauty and interest.

My work deals with eternal touchable materials such as clay, metal, and resin, or fragile images such as light, shadow and reflection. I use everyday phenomena as some of the important elements because it endows everyone fairly and it makes my work personable. I attempt to grasp a wobble and nonsense in the real world, and to make people uncover fresh views even in the mundane, in their everyday life. My interest in real life makes us think about observing the world carefully.

Now more than ever, artists have a responsibility in society to document what’s happening in the world to pass it on to future generations, and to help heal broken hearts with curiosity and beauty.

— Momoko Usami

ON WITNESS #2

This is a piece in the ‘Witness’ series I made that document what’s happening in this pivotal moment in history, especially in the U.S., in a form of cowrie shell that mimics the eye. I’ve been using cowrie shell as a motif for a while. I was interested in cowrie that spread around the world even inland because they were used in currency, and also used in fortune telling and as amulet. Now use of cowrie shell as amulet sticks with me as the world seems to be falling apart. The pupil turns around, and the other side of the pupil is silver surface to ask audience “when this was happening, what did you do?”.

— Momoko Usami

ON ROCKER OF ANGER (INSURRECTION) & (CONSEQUENCES)

This is one of my projects documenting the rise of anger and hate in everyday life in the US. The first Rock of Anger plate was triggered by the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017, with a hope to contain growing anger and hate shut into a secret rock to seal it. However, not only anger and hate could not be sealed, it was all unleashed by Trump’s leadership of white supremacy in plain view. After the January 6th Storming of the Capital, I made second and third Rock of Anger plates, titled ‘Insurrection’ and ‘Consequences’. On the plate ‘Insurrection’, I drew people actively trying to destroy the secret rock that is plugged and sealed with propaganda stickers containing anger and hate. In the plate ‘Consequences’, the anger and hate blows up so big that it is leaking out from the crack on the secret rock. On the back of the plates, I drew a map that mimicked Trump’s face. The Latin in the back says “Here be Anger, Fear, and Hate”.

— Momoko Usami

OUR AMERICA/WHOSE AMERICA?

2022 | Group Exhibition at Ferrin Contemporary | North Adams, MA

Our America/Whose America? Is a “call and response” exhibition between contemporary artists and historic ceramic objects.

View the exhibition page HERE  & View the historic collection HERE

Momoko Usami, “Rock of Anger (Consequences)”, 2022, porcelain, 11.25 x 11.15 x 1.5″, image courtesy of John Polak

Momoko Usami, “Rock of Anger (Consequences)”, 2022, porcelain, 11.25 x 11.15 x 1.5″, image courtesy of John Polak

Momoko Usami, “Rock of Anger (Insurrection)”, 2022, porcelain, 11.5 x 11.5 x 1.5″, image courtesy of John Polak

Momoko Usami, “Rock of Anger (Insurrection)”, 2022, porcelain, 11.5 x 11.5 x 1.5″, image courtesy of John Polak