Digital Catalogue: 2024 Josephine Ulrick and Win Schubert Photography Award
Mika Nakamura-Mather
b. 1963 Fukushima Japan, lives Brisbane QLD
Those sacred days you gave me, 2024
Japanese indigenous timber, photographic transfer sheets, natural Japanese pigments, scratched figures
Image courtesy of the artist © Mika Nakamura-Mather
Artist Statement
Based on photographs taken by my family and me, the artwork depicts memories of the passing of the seasons in my hometown of Shibukawa from childhood to recent times. The four seasons are important markers of permanence and impermanence for Japanese people and, in this work, the different fragments of memory preserved in each photograph are brought together and connected by traditional wooden chigiri joints - used for centuries in Japan to repair and preserve everyday wooden household items. In our modern, machine-made world, the handmade joints remind us that it is often life’s imperfections that we value most.
About the Artist
Born in Japan, Mika Nakamura-Mather has been a resident of Australia since 2003, living in both Sydney and Brisbane.
Nakamura-Mather's practice explores the concepts of home and belonging that lie at the heart of understanding our identity. Through the processes of object making, assemblage, installation and traditional painting and photography, she examines the connection we feel to a particular location, the cultural markers that define our understanding of home, and the immediacy and relevance of our personal memories.
Nakamura-Mather is a graduate of the Queensland College of Art, Griffith University with a Diploma of Visual Art and Bachelor of Visual Art (Hons First Class).
