Wanderes of the Earth

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Wanderers of the Earth

Dove Cottage, Wordswoth Museum, Grasmere, Lake District, UK

2014

 

This installation is a collaboration piece with a Belgium artist, Inge Panneels.

Created for a group show titled ‘Wordsworth and BashoWalking Poets’, the piece took an inspiration from the poets’ literally work as well as their creative process.

Firstly small glass tiles, that bear images of the world map, were created in a glass studio. Then they were sent out to our friends and acquaintances across the world as a gift. Receivers were invited to write a word that means ‘a star’ in their native language on an enclosed Japanese paper disk and send it back to the museum.

Initially some 250 ‘stars’ were sent to the Wordsworth Museum, the venue of the show, which stands next to Wordsworth’s former residence Dove Cottage. They were installed in the museum to create a conceptual ‘Milky Way’, together with a glass panel that bears poems by Wordsworth and Basho, each referring to the Milky Way or stars.

Visitors of the show were also invited to participate by leaving their ‘stars’ on paper disks, therefore the Milky Way continues to grow for the duration of the show (May-Nov 2014). At the end of the show, there were some 450 stars contributed from various corners of the world.

 

 

View of the installation at the beginning of the show.

 

 

 

Following the success of the exhibition in the UK, the show traveled to Kakimori Bunko, Hyogo, Japan in 2016. The art work by contemporary artists were exhibited together with the original manuscripts of Basho and Wordsworth.
This time the piece was shown as a video alongside with a glass panel.

 

 

 

<process of the project>

Glass maps were created in a glass studio.

 

 

 

 

 

They were wrapped with Japanese paper, then sealed with a stamp designed with initials of Panneels and Shirakura.

 

photo: Hiroyasu Fujimoto

 

 

Then they were sent out to our friends and acquaintances across the world together with an invitation letter to the project.

 

Stars were sent to the museum from around the world. Envelopes that delivered stars were also displayed in the museum during the exhibition.

 

if you are interested in seeing the video that shows how the glass maps were created, please click here.