About the artwork
Saya Woolfalk
Dashikimono #1 (Day wear for lands not yet habitable by humankind), 2014
Dimensions(h x w x d): 45" x 62-1/8" (framed)
Gouache on paper with collage
Located in Fariborz Maseeh Hall, first floor north hallway
Dashikimono #1 is part of the series ChimaTEK Hybridization Visualization Series. As artist Saya Woolfalk explained to the Huffington Post, "I want people to experience something that simultaneously makes them slightly uncomfortable about the potential of the world that I have created, but also gives them an excitement about a harmonious, multicultural society [...] American culture is a serious hybrid—an agglomeration of all of the different immigrant groups and nationalities. It’s history of European colonialism, slavery, and Native American history made our culture what it is today."
About the artist
Saya Woolfalk is a New York-based Japanese-American artist who uses science fiction and fantasy to re-imagine the world in multiple dimensions. With multi-year projects No Place, The Empathics, and ChimaTEK, Woolfalk has created the world of the Empathics, a fictional race of women who are able to alter their genetic make-up and fuse with plants. With each body of work, Woolfalk builds the narrative of these women’s lives, and questions the utopian possibilities of cultural hybridity.
See more of Saya Woolfalk's work on her website.
This work was acquired through Oregon's Percent for Art in Public Places Program, managed by the Oregon Arts Commission.
Banner image courtesy of the artist.