June 16, 2022 Image They/Them She/Her Sophomore, Fine Arts Studio Kinji Akagawa Merit Scholarship $2,500Online Portfolio White Bear Lake, Minnesota Describe the work you submitted for merits. The work displayed in my merit submission shows my experimentation with bioplastics and their relationships to the more traditional materials I've been exploring while here at MCAD. My fascination with the natural world and my habit of collecting is distinctly shown in the works included. The work is displayed as a research project of sorts, an illusion of knowledge and experimentation to inspire the viewer to search and fantasize, while at the same time having a basis in real exploration of growing and designing with bio-materials. The collection of objects have a sense of history yet look towards and inspire answers for a different future. Because these works came out of my research of the natural world and history, questions of archival knowledge and bodily memory arise as additional themes. This manifests in handmade books, research displays, and archival object collections. This collection not only depicts the material processes I've been learning but explore the varieties of memory as form or action. What's next for your practice? Anything you're really excited to make? I'm eager to expand my research. My work currently finds a lot of roots in science and a love for exploring and I hope to expand this practice with greater depth and planning. At this moment I'm expanding my material knowledge and technical abilities which I hope to encompass more sustainable materials and a continued development of biomaterials, including the SCOBY but even fungus and agar agar in the future. I'm excited to bring my media work into the three-dimensional realm as well. Favorite thing about college life (so far)? I really love the community and proximity to the creation that art school harbors. Living near campus and having a studio space allows me to create and share often which really fuels my creativity. Plus the college atmosphere of everyone learning and exploring life is inspiring. What inspires you? A curiosity for the natural world, my desire to know about what's going on around me and beneath my feet have always been a source of inspiration. If I wasn't an artist I would have pursued science so I tend to use art as an outlet to still explore the natural world. With this I am also inspired by memory and experience. I think this is a pretty common source for most but I have a desire to record these memories within objects which comes from being inspired by antiques/personal artifacts which have surrounded me my whole life. My work at an antique store and growing up in a collecting family is a source of this inspiration. Do you have a favorite piece you've made? Describe it! My current favorite is my art books and stand A Series of Revelations. I really fell in love with reading again this past year and how books are an object of shared process and a source of personal revelation, which is really exciting to me at the moment. This series of books allowed me to try out a bunch of material processes, including paper making, laser cutting, and wood bending. The stand that hold these books has added sentimentality because I worked with my younger sister to create the laser cut design which appears on the front. The covers are each made of very different materials and all have very sensory reactions, one book is made of beets the other bark—which is incredibly textural—whereas another book is made of SCOBY leather which has a distinct kombucha smell. This series became my favorite after seeing my peers explore these books and respond with such a warm reaction described as a nostalgic feeling of curiosity. Anything you're obsessed with at the moment? My studio neighbors might be sick of the kombucha smell but I'm still obsessed with SCOBY and biomaterials! I started growing SCOBY which is an acronym for Symbiotic Culture of Bacterial Yeast. I'm still really fascinated by its potential as a leather substitute and the almost fleshy quality it has, which really becomes effective with my work that explores more bodily relationships. Plus, who doesn't like growing weird slimy stuff! This obsession is starting to merge with my other ruminating thoughts of metal and flesh and my begrudged obsession with technology which has some sort of fluctuating relationship with my desire to return to the natural world.