Golden Reflections
A Virtual Exhibition by BirdsNest Gallery
In alignment with our mission to use our gallery platform to promote emerging artists, we are delighted to present beautiful visual art created by two recent graduates. Related to our ongoing exhibition, Golden Reflections, their artworks similarly relate to stillness, natural motifs, and the beauty of Japanese culture.
Lynn Hatayama
Lynn is a recent graduate of the University of Edinburgh in Philosophy and Politics, with a background in traditional art and media, with some occasional photography. Drawing upon her experiences living abroad in Amsterdam, Dubai, and Edinburgh, as well as her identity as a half-Japanese and half-American, she seeks to capture the little details of life and reminders of the places she calls home. The changing of seasons is a particular focus in her photography, blending the Japanese cultural importance of seasonal colours, smells, and objects with broader themes of transition. Lynn seeks to convey an appreciation of the simple beauty of nature and everyday life, wherever she finds herself.
Mia Takemoto
Mia Takemoto is a British-Japanese artist working in Edinburgh. Her art practice celebrates cultural hybridity, bringing together techniques, materials and themes to create a new, transnational style that bears her unique signature. As a British-Japanese artist born in Australia and currently living in Scotland, her work is strongly influenced by the cultures she is rooted-in and have routed through.
In her paintings, she explores the role of food, family, and the home in bridging the gaps between her cultural identities. More specifically, she is drawn to the concept of "third-cultural space", which is made up of components to which the individual feels that they belong and is characterised by a hybridity of cultures.
Takemoto's expression of cultural hybridity is also reflected in her choice of materials and processes, which oscillate between East and West. Traditional Asian materials such as sumi ink, origami collage, and egg tempera are used in paintings of contemporary art, where the process of preparing the materials becomes as important as the painting itself.
