I was chosen to be part of the 2026 Cohort of the Fusion Art Residency. They have been running from 2017 and has taken a life of its own; and for this round, collaborated with the BnA Hotel. From January 11th to the 31st of January, 19 artists from a variety of disciplines and locations, came and worked on their craft as they were culturally immersed in Tokyo.

It took a while to process my emotions – how do you honor the opportunity of finally getting something you have always wanted your entire life? After years, I finally making it to Japan and then finally accepted in an art residency and it was not a feeling of amazement, more of a feeling of coming home. In so many respects, Japan healed many versions of myself that I never knew needed it. The major part of the residency was to use the space as inspiration and have at least one piece for the exhibition at the end of residency. The beautiful thing was that one had the ability to stretch beyond the usual scope and challenge oneself. I went to workshops, I hosted one, and I even got to work on music once my artwork was complete. It was humbling to meet so many talented artists from all walks of live and the administrators from the residency were nothing short of supportive every step of the way.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The energy seemed to hark for more positive and unifying energy and over the course of the first week, all I could think about was food. The inspiration in a way came from the official welcome dinner with the variety of sushi that we got – a fusion of global cuisine with local ingredients. As I reflected, and watched everyone work, I decided to combine my love for Food, with my love for Politics. Thus over the span of three weeks, my piece, “The Politics of Food” came to be. This piece was done with mixed media: 18×26 fabric, paper, acrylics, hand embroidery and Velcro. The concept was to stoke the conversation on how food plays an integral role in society beyond just the concept of consuming food. To encourage the audience to engage in this profound topic, I made sure the piece had translations from English to Japanese and for the first time, I learned to make pop-up art on the canvas for people to actively participate in the piece.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pop-up art came as an idea because I was interested in people having a hands on approach than just passively looking at the piece. In pulling and opening elements, even if they were unsure, they would leave with a much more engaging experience. In the end, the idea was to hang the piece with four Post-It Notes attached to the wall. Part of the instructions was for people at the end to write what came to their head when they thought of food and it could be written in English or Japanese. The piece then transformed from being static, to a dynamic instillation that grew and took a life on its own. This piece resonated and sparked a lot of interesting conversations that I would love to explore further this year.