Manami Ishimura: In One Breath?

Opening Reception March 11 from 6-8 PM. 

In One Breath seeks to embody the life-changing experience of birth in a tangible form. The work honors life’s essence and invites reflection on the transformative energies of birth and decay through glass form, organic form, living process, and digital translation.

A cast glass sculpture, evoking the reimagining of a womb projecting its process of decay, represents the connection between the artist and her son while simultaneously distorting the image of life’s ephemerality in transition. Through glass tubing, it is connected to a human-scale ant farm that previously housed a colony of ants that fed on agar molded in the shape of the placenta.

This practice examines a complex network of trails throughout a human-size ant farm visually akin to an energy transitional drawing, the glass enclosure rendering it visible yet untouchable.

About the Artist:

Manami Ishimura (b. Tokyo, Japan) is a visual artist and educator. Her sculptures have been exhibited both nationally and internationally including at Shiga Kogen Roman Art Museum, Nagano, Japan; Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan; Fresh Winds Art Binnale, Suðurnesjabær, Iceland; and The Gund, Ohio. Ishimura’s continued exploration of ways to celebrate universality of art across cultures had led her to contribute a permanent public art piece as a Windgate Artist in Residence at Arkansas Tech University. She attended artist residencies including Franconia Sculpture Park, Wisconsin, Interlude Artist in Residency, New York, Hambidge Center, Georgia, and Organic Art in Residence, Nagano, Japan. Ishimura received her BFA degree in sculpture at Tama University in Japan, and earned her MFA degree in sculpture and ceramics at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi in 2018. She is an Assistant Professor of Art at Kenyon College.

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