Artist Fumi Imamura’s collages look like bouquets from a beguiling, yet-t0-be-discovered planet. She herself is rather otherworldly. Instead of growing her flowers from seed, Imamura conjures them entirely on paper that she meticulously paints, cuts out, and applies, roots and all, in enchanting arrangements.
Based in Aichi, in central Japan—Imamura received her MFA from Kanazawa College of Art in 2008—she often works on the floor with her cat at her side and has described her art as capturing “the wordless poetry” of plants.
The Garden of Musubi, a solo show of Imamura’s art curated by Julia Tarasyuk, just opened at Lyndsey Ingram gallery in London, and is up through July 18. “Imamura’s paper gardens do not merely represent nature, they embody it, its repetitions, its fragility, and its resilience,” writes Tarasyuk.
Here’s a look at Imamura in her studio and her latest work, plus a glimpse of her first London show.
Photography courtesy of Fumi Imamura and Lyndsey Ingram gallery via Julia Tarasyuk.
Her work is easy to mistake as pressed flowers, but Imamura entirely invents her pieces on paper: painting petals, stems, and roots; meticulously cutting them out; and then applying them on paper. Creating collages, rather than paintings, and using ghostly, rumpled paper as her canvas, gives her pieces dimension—and intrigue.
Wondering about her semi-transparent backdrops? They’re glassine, the shiny, crinkly paper familiar as the envelopes that sheets of stamps come in.
Tarasyuk, who has curated several Imamura shows, notes: “Her delicate multilayered creations resemble dried flowers pressed into the pages of a book, but on a wall-sized scale. These plants derive their charm not only from their branching, budding, insect-nibbled blossoms and leaves, but also from their poignantly rendered roots. Echoing the ethos of Japanese crafts, Imamura’s works speak to the beauty of the cracked, the faded, and the lovingly preserved.”
“Musubi is the Japanese word for tying,” explains Imamura. “The word and act of tying also has the meanings of giving birth, being born, and binding. In Japan there is also a god called Musubi. This is the God of Creation. The Japanese words for God and paper have the same sound, Kami. My flowers are born from paper.”
Here’s how Imamura describes this collage on Instagram: “I used very strong red paint for this red flower. Red is a special color for me. It is a color with power that makes my heart clench…The mysterious roots look like the hair of a girl with a hair ornament, and her presence brightens everyone’s day.”
Fumi Imamura’s current show is on view at Lyndsey Ingram gallery, 16 Bourdon Street in London, through July 18. For inquiries, write to [email protected].
More botanical art inspiration:
- DIY Scrap Paper Flowers: Sandy Suffield’s Art from the Garden
- ‘Night Gardens’: Floral Dreams By Artist Mary Mattingly
- ‘Still: The Art of Noticing’ By Mary Jo Hoffman
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