THE "AVANT-GARDE IKEBANA" SERIES | mixed media

This series is an experimental abstract three-dimensional form that asks the audience to define their personal aesthetic sensibilities. Similar to how the placement of each flower in a vase may evoke distinct aesthetic reactions about the entire arrangement, the abstract depictions of objects in these pieces are constructed using discrete mathematical and technical principles.

Each complementary color is viewed through the window of another color. In other words, the colors complement each other using their respective negative spaces. The use of these primary and complementary colors in geometrical forms is influenced by the Dutch art movement, De Stijl, (1917 - 1931) aimed at achieving a specific idealized art form that dismisses the supremacy of the subject in favor of purely linear elements. Unified in space, to me, these colors and forms evince absolute harmony and peace.

On a humanistic level, the mirrored reflections from the wood plates and squares of plexiglas suggest the connectivity of people. The materials are both organic and industrial. People may be viewed initially from one dimension, but are in fact connected through multiple linear relationships both conditionally and unconditionally. Industrial elements are conditionally connected one another while organic elements are unconditionally related. The pieces reflect and interact with each other through the mirror just as people connect with one another through their senses.

Taiko Fujimura, 2007

Taiko Fujimura is a mixed media artist based in San Francisco. Working with wood, paints, plexiglas, mirrors and found objects, she creates conceptual two- and three-dimensional collage and assemblage works as well as paintings on a variety of surfaces. Her three-dimensional work is designed to invite the viewer to interact with each piece to discover his or her personal aesthetic within the microcosm of what Taiko presents as the broader representation of beauty.

Taiko selects materials that link her inner self with the outside world, creating an extended montage of her personal experiences, connections and relationships with both people and objects. Her use of colors is often vivid and extreme, and evokes her emotional responses to objects and non-objects. Her pieces confront the dichotomies between chaos and order, industrial and organic, mind and body, positive and negative, logical and random, and intuitive and sequential. She feels an understanding of dualism is key to her art. Her pieces seek to bridge the contradictions around us where two opposites co-exist through unifying space.

The concepts she explores include quietude, peacefulness, harmony, unity, and universality. Her work is strongly influenced by Japanese wabi-sabi, an aesthetic system she believes to be beautiful art and Japanese calligraphy, which she has studied since age six.

Taiko graduated from the Japan College of Foreign Languages in Tokyo. Between 1998 and 2001, she studied fine arts at the San Francisco Art Institute and graphic design at the California College of the Arts with scholarships and awards. Her works appear in over 100 private and public collections globally.

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

October 2008, Featured on Fort Mason Center Open Studios 2008, San Francisco, CA

July 19, 2008, "Solo Show by Taiko Fujimura"- Online Hokubei Mainichi Newspaper, San Francisco, CA

November 27, 2007, "Bridging Dichotomies"- an interview by Andrew Crum of Moment Of Truth

June 29, 2007, "Artist Named 'Best in Show'"- Hokubei Mainichi Newspaper, E-Page 2, San Francisco, CA

April 2007 Featured Artist - Area of Design

August 18, 2006, Pacific Noise Video Podcast Interview - Episode 87

Dec 2005 / Jan 2006 Complex Magazine - Art Listing, New York, NY

Artnow 2005, London, England