ECHOES BETWEEN WORLDS: Reflections, Ephemerality, and the Presence of Kami
Marina Yamazaki is an artist who lives, works, and studies in Naarm/Melbourne. She explores the connection between the spiritual and physical. She interacts with the world of kami and spirits that inhabit natural spaces through her lived experiences, attempting to convey their presence through light, texture, and material sensitivity. Japanese aesthetics and philosophies of yugen and mono no aware, which reflect on the impermanence, solitude, and the unseen, have informed her work. Although working primarily with painting as a medium, she incorporates aluminium leaf as a key, central component, allowing its reflective qualities to serve as a portal between the spirit and human realms. Light becomes both a subject and a medium in her works, which intersect the line between abstraction and figuration, evoking feelings of fragility and stillness. She seeks to inspire viewers to pause and interact with natural spaces, to recognise the magic within simple, fleeting moments.
