Somira

Somira is a large-scale wooden sculpture inspired in part by the image of a dual-bodied Bishamonten. For me, this figure is connected to the boundary between life and death. I was especially interested in working with scale. I made the sculpture much larger than the human body so that the viewer has to physically confront its presence. Death is something enormous and always present, even when we try not to think about it. I wanted Somira to feel like a guardian standing somewhere between life and death, creating a moment in which the viewer becomes aware of that constant presence.