2023 6/10-2024 1/3 Masumi Rodriguez　

2023 7/1- 2024 1/3 Elena Kirby

2023 9/16 - 2024 1/3 Lucy Carver

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1, How did you meet Ayumi and find Washi’s artist in residency? What made you decide to come?

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Masumi: I met Ayumi in winter of 2019 through a farm exchange program. I initially went to find a personal relationship to Japan outside of my family, seeking personal relations to Japanese culture as a Japanese Canadian. At that moment, I was more interested in farming and land-work rather than artistic practice. Winter of 2020, I spent the long-laborious harvesting and peeling processing of the plant kozo, where I felt grounded in the repetitive motion of handwork and the necessity of the community to continue to pass on this knowledge. Meeting and building a relationship with the Hamada family has impacted my life significantly. 

With this relationship, I went back to Washi+ residency for seven months with my project partner Elena Kirby, with a self-directed project to learn about making paper with alternative fibres. Washi+ has immensely supported our curiosities and allowed us to explore beyond what we could have ever imagined to learn. 

Elena: Masumi invited me to follow her to Washi+ and stay with Ayumi for seven months to build our collaborative project. I was excited to learn about taking care of the Kozo farms alongside practicing fibre material processes with alternative plants. Spending this amount of time there allowed me to build a relationship with Ayumi that has continued to grow beyond our visit. 
 

2, During your stay, what did you do? 

In 2023, our residency took the form of a work exchange, we were responsible for taking care of the farms and any needed tasks. During the summer months (up until November), we would alternate farms in Yanagino, Yasui, and Ochi, weeding and caring for the land where the kozo grew. Everyday, we would be on the farm removing a weedy plant called karamushi (or chyoma) which grows around the Kozo. We would bring the karamushi home to use for learning about making paper with alternative fibre. It was a symbiosis cycle, removing the karamushi on the farms, and processing the fibre post-work at the residency. From the months of July until September, we processed a kilo of dried karamushi fibre to make one final large “Karamushi paper”. In the winter months during harvesting and peeling sessions, Elena, our friend Lucy, and I collaborated to make sculpture objects made out of karamushi and kozo to explore what it means to create objects collectively. 

3, What have you learned and how have you applied to your art? 

At Washi+ residency we learned what it means to make a material, specifically paper. Beyond the technical steps, making this material relies on many people throughout each step of the process. Washi+ facilitator Ayumi Hamada introduced us to the papermakers, Kitaoka and Myu. Their support and guidance had a big impact on us and expanded our capability for learning during the residency. They shared their knowledge of what to look for when working with alternative plant material which we were able to continue to apply to working with plants when we returned to Canada. 

Throughout this time, Ayumi was a mentor to us, we began learning what it means to involve community as a foundation of an artistic practice. Over time, we were able to observe her process of sharing her generational knowledge with the next generation including the foreigners that come to Washi+. She showed us that caring for her community is intertwined within her artistic methodology and we felt the work that takes. We continue to learn from Ayumi about navigating cross-cultural exchange and  what it means for her to be sharing this cultural practice with non-Japanese visitors as a means to support the kozo farmers. How does a cultural practice like washi live-onwards and in consideration of the reciprocal relationships with folks who come into the space. It is a difficult balance to manage, and an ongoing learning for all. 

As we engaged with slow-process practice – to collect the plant material, to process the plant fibres, and to finally make paper – we found that these moments are where relationships are built. Receiving and extending helping hands in so many directions, to support one another has been embedded in our practice since the beginning of this residency. The generosity, patience, and kindness from folks we have met through this residency continues to be present in our lives, and reminds us to consider what we can give back ongoingly with the knowledge and care that was gifted to us. It was truly an honour to be a part of this residency, and has continued to give gifts as Elena and I continue this project – Touch Me, Don’t Forget Me. 

4, Could you explain a bit about your piece?

“After-hours” consists of three objects – one made from karamushi paper, one made from kozo paper, and one made from a hybrid of karamushi and kozo. These are the two plants we spent many months with, during work and after hours. As artists, we are often placed in a position where we individually create an art work – making all the decisions personally. 

Being at washi+ highlighted the many hands, passed down knowledge, and shared labor that goes into and sustains this work. We wanted to create objects that leaned into this inter-dependence. 

With this work made by three artists – Elena Kirby, Lucy Carver Brennan and Masumi Rodriguez – we collectively considered what it means for our making to be blurred within an object. These pieces were made after-hours of work at the farm. We built this series of objects through a form of play, giving ourselves a set of rules and parameters to experiment with sensing and interpreting the creative process in a collaboration of three.