Growing up in rural Ibaraki with parents who cultivated organic vegetables, Moeko's childhood was marked by daily coexistence with various creatures - chickens, dogs, squirrels, and goldfish. These early observations of life's small cycles have become the foundation of my current artistic practice.
In the past, Japanese forests maintained their natural balance through appropriate population levels of various species. However, human activity and environmental modification have severely disrupted this delicate equilibrium. We carry life as a "gift" from Earth, but how should we pass on this borrowed life to future generations.
"Stone" is an exploration that questions the boundary between artificial objects and nature, seeking new possibilities for coexistence. The work centers around "karami-ishi" (slag stone), an industrial waste product from copper refining processes during the Edo to Meiji periods. This artificial mineral, once dumped into the sea, has been reconstructed as a growing medium for plants.
By drilling holes in the slag stone and crushing it to mix with soil to create a special substrate for seeds and moss, Moeko presents a new relationship between industrial waste and nature.
"Bone" visualizes the distorted relationship between humans and the natural world by using the bones of culled wild animals as materials, transforming them into powder. Recent development has fragmented habitats, while the abandonment of satoyama (managed woodlands) has disrupted ecosystem balance. This transformation process serves as a symbol of contemporary ecosystem degradation and the "traces" left behind.
In her creative process, Moeko chooses methods that work with natural forces and align with the environment. This approach reflects the dialogue with the land that she learned in her childhood. These works overlay her foundational experiences in rural life with the complex relationships between humans and wildlife in our ecosystem. Through the transformation from tangible to intangible forms and then to new forms, she explores the distortions in ecosystems caused by human activity and their chain reactions.
Through this creative process, she observes the vanishing equilibrium while searching for new ways of coexistence between humans and wildlife. Simultaneously, it is a creative re-examination of the concept of "nature" that she has known since childhood.