Artist: Kiyomi Fukui
Exhibition: The Green Thumb Project
Media: Scrap paper, seeds, raised beds
Website: kiyomifukui.com
Instagram: @kiyomimiz
Kiyomi Fukui is an artist who is half Japanese and half Korean who lives in Long Beach, California. She views art as a therapy and as a cathartic release. She uses her art as a creative outlet. Her projects usually rely on participants and not objects. She also views art as conversations she’s had with people and wants to capture the experiences she’s had with people.
In her exhibition, “The Green Thumb Project” Fukui created a casting of her mother’s thumb out of scrap paper and planted seeds in the middle of it. She planted the castings and put them in raised beds for the exhibition. The raised beds were light brown wood and were all different shapes consisting of long rectangles to small squares. The castings she planted grew into plants that were green in color and all shapes and sizes. The casting of her mom’s thumb was a white grey color, and not only did she cast her mom’s thumb but hers as well. You can tell the difference between the two thumbs because Fukui’s thumb has a longer nail.
This project was to help Fukui go through her mother’s passing. Her mother passed away 6 years ago due to cancer and was living in Korea when she was sick while Fukui was in California. When Fukui learned of her mother’s depleting health, she flew to Korea to get a mold of her mother’s thumb. Fukui is still not over her mother’s death and believes life will never be the same without her. She decided to make a casting of her mother’s thumb out of scrap paper and put seeds in it. She knew she wanted it to be decomposable so that’s why she made it out of paper instead of something else like metal. She liked the idea of her mom being able to spread her roots somewhere even now that she is gone. She said that she doesn’t really have a green thumb, and that whatever plants don’t survive she composts.
I really enjoyed listening to Kiyomi Fukui talk about a couple of her exhibitions. I was stuck trying to decide whether I wanted to discuss this exhibition or her “Conversations on Conflict” exhibition. I chose this one because I liked her idea of letting her mother plant her roots even now that she is gone. I also don’t have a green thumb, but I still try to take care of plants which is something I relate to her with.
Brielle Sunseri 