Erica Isomura

Artist statement

For most of my life, my father did not talk about our Japanese internment history which led to loss of home, livelihood, language, and culture. This fracture influences my artistic practice, which explores issues of land, politics, time, and multigenerational Japanese- and Chinese-diasporic identity through an interdisciplinary approach. Whether through drawing, printmaking, paper art, collage, mixed-media, poetry, or prose writing, my work reimagines familial archives by collating and remixing scrap materials to produce something new. Despite the lingering effects of dispossession, my art reclaims narrative by permeating gaps within history. I often use mixed-media to juxtapose image and text, whether poetry and prose, images of plant life, prints, maps, and fragmented legal documents. I assert history’s living nature by inserting my voice into historical events. As I move towards the future, I carry history with me and through my storytelling. My work incorporates west coast ethnobotanical knowledge and aquatic motifs, influenced by my upbringing on the west coast and my Environmental Studies background. The tactile nature of harvesting, printmaking, drawing, and collaging invokes a sense of curiosity and playfulness in my practice, while simultaneously deepening my relationship to place. During my undergraduate studies, I was particularly interested in political ecology and the ethics of ethnoecological studies, which informs how I approach my eco-arts practice, whether working directly with botanical materials or engaging with land and waterways. Oftentimes, aesthetics of beauty, nature, and conservation are used to veil historical displacement. With regards to this, feelings of conflict emerge throughout the work. My practice meditates on questions about alternative ways of conceptualizing land without seeking to provide answers. It asks viewers to consider their own relationships to land, space, time, and familial inheritance.