Melanie Terasaki
"My DNA’s Influence on Book as Art"
|
|
|
| (Photos by Patrick Fraser) |
Pathways in life aren’t always straight. They are full of twists and turns. This piece is a representation of my life. I have always LOVED paper -- I love everything about it, its feel, its sound, its great strength despite its fragility, and in the end, ephemeral. It is not meant to last forever -- just like humans.
Perhaps my affinity for paper is in my DNA, which is represented in the folded map of Japan. I am a third-generation Japanese American. I made my very first trip to Japan this past May and was totally amazed to feel “at home” despite not being able to speak or read Japanese.
I took a workshop in indigo, shibori dying, and katazome (a stencil technique). It was an additional inspiration for the materials I used. I dyed several hundred pieces of paper in indigo. I incorporated text from a Japanese book that was 100 years old. I also used USGS maps of the places I lived in or visited. I made my own bookcloth for the book cover from a piece I created and dyed in Japan.
I chose to use Coptic bookbinding, as it allows great flexibility, has a strong spine and pieces can be added. I wanted to mimic the twist of the DNA molecule, but also the dips in life. The book is divided into six sections, each section representing a decade of my life. They are differentiated in the orientation of the maps that are folded in what is called “The Turkish Map fold”.
This project was a true technical challenge, from trying to figure out a way to fold the map of Japan, cutting, dying, and folding hundreds of pieces of paper, to having to build a tower to sew the book together as it had to be sewn vertically.