Kokon Touzai (古今東西)
As a foreign visitor partaking in the communial experience of living
in the Compeung Residency, my exposure to Thai culture was neither
that of a tourist nor resident, but as something of an outsider who
was allowed to share in their lives, space and time.
古今東西-Kokon Touzai is created from this experience of having the
viewpoint of being the outsider. It is a Japanese idiom meaning
literally old, new, west and east. 古今-Kokon refers to any flow of time
and 東西-Touzai refers to any span of space. Vibrant Buddhist temples,
local markets, rice fields and wai seem to coexist with western style
houses, huge trucks and iPads. I felt as if I was witness to the
merging of both old and new cultures and traditions.
Tomo Kobayashi was born in Tokyo, Japan. After earning a double major BFA in Ceramics and Photography at Arizona State University in 2007, she moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan. While there she became an associate artist at the Urban Institute of Contemporary Art until 2009. She was accepted into the masters program at Michigan State University and is currently a third year MFA candidate.
Her work seeks to focus upon the broader aspects of cross/inter-cultural experiences that may express the idea of Kizuna, a Japanese term meaning a strong physical and psychological bond between people.
Her most recent work “A Story of My Aunt” is a commemorative piece taken from her living experience with her aunt, Teruko, for six months before Teruko’s death from breast cancer. Short poems were etched onto rice paper, which was then torn into strips and woven together to form a cloth that expresses a sadly quiet and somehow beautiful memento of that time spent together.