︎art grows roots︎art heals roots︎art soothes roots︎art untangles roots︎art cuts roots︎art reveals roots︎art nourishes roots︎art transforms roots︎art celebrates roots︎art shocks roots︎art touches roots︎art strengthens roots︎art honours roots︎art connects roots ︎art reclaims roots
Mirai Nemoto Nilsson ︎ Artist ︎ m.nemotonilsson@gmail.com ︎ Gothenburg (SE)
A CHOREOGRAPHED FIKA, 2020
In Sweden, the concept of ‘Fika’ is more than just a coffee/tea and cake break, it is a daily ritual for building social connection and communities. Using the workshop as a design format, A Choreographed Fika dissects the Swedish Fika situation through an understanding of choreography and abstraction. The workshop consisted of three components: Actors, Spatial and Interaction, where students were involved in materialising intangible and abstract elements that typically characterise an everyday Fika situation.
Workshop developed in collaboration with Yuxi Chen, Lani DuVall, Maria Gräslund and Emeli Höcks, and with the guidance of Judith Seng, February 2020.
おばあちゃん (GRANDMA), 2023
おばあちゃん (Grandma) is a zine which personally explores visual ways to overcome a Japanese-English language barrier between an artist living in Sweden and her grandmother living in Japan. The zine contains digital photographs of flowers taken from a smartphone camera by the artist's grandmother where she documents her daily-life in Japan. In one spread in the zine, the artist's grandmother captures a sunflower field located in a town in Miyagi prefecture. The sunflowers were planted by local farmers and volunteers with the purpose of soothing one's soul. As the creative making process unfolded, the zine manifested itself into a visual narration of a garden; as a kind of soft landing place, symbolising care and resilience. The photographs in the zine were then digitally edited in a collage-like manner and it includes the artist's analogue watercolour drawings as a way of bridging their intergenerational bond.
32 pages, Hand sewn with brown thread.
14 x 19.5 cm.
10 editions.
Materials: Digitally edited photos and scans of analogue watercolour drawings.
This zine was exhibited at Galleri Box, June 16-20, 2023.
Curated by Take 10 Press.
MEETING SANDSJÖBACKA, 2020
Meeting Sandsjöbacka is a workshop realised from a site-specific design research project Human Meets Stone, which calls for intra-action and co-existence between human and non-human beings. The project explores how drawing together with stones can provide a way to cultivate resilience and grounding amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The workshop investigates co-drawing, not only as a coping mechanism, but also to create an approachable meeting between stones and bypassers of Sandsjöbacka nature park.
LOCATION DRAWING WORKSHOP, 2023
Year 1 BFA Visual Communication + Change students were introduced to location drawing and basic drawing methods for sketching animals and plants, as well as abstract visualisation drawing techniques.
Guest lecturer for
1DI186 Module 1: Introduction – Sustainability & Creativity, September 2023, Linnaeus University, Växjö.
A DAILY WALK IN THE FOREST, 2021
Inspired by the term “Forest Bathing” (Shinrin-yoku), an ancient Japanese practice of mindful walking in the forest, the project interprets the paper as a body and utilises materials from the forest as mark making tools. The paper was then wrapped around the body to symbolise the act of bathing and soaking in the forest’s natural atmosphere. The intention of the project was to investigate how performative mark making can be used to visualise ordinary day-to-day activities or routines, like taking a walk in the forest, as a mundane ritual.
︎ Watch the Mark Making Process:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFAPwibOqJg