Miyouki Nakajima

After having worked both as an artistic director and the head of an accessories line in Japan, Miyouki Nakajima created her own house, SILK: LABO, in 2003, where she produces floral ornaments for various designers.

The artist wants to contribute to the revival of the art of artificial flower crafting, an age-old profession which has become somewhat of a minor craft. She fervently devotes herself to a contemporary vision of this profession, respectful of its traditions. She is constantly exploring new techniques, studying new skill sets to place an artistic value back at the center of this craft. During her studies, she therefore quite naturally borrowed techniques such as Sumi (Japanese ink), Kinzoku-Fun (metal powders) and Iwa-Enogu (natural mineral pigments) from Japanese painters. In these studies, she tributes the great French craftsmen, heirs to centuries-old traditions.

Throughout her work, she unconsciously projects her life and story onto the impermanence of nature.

“When I come into contact with it, I experience abstract sensations, a mixture of feelings and impulses. The fleeting dimension of life and nature as I sense it, imprints itself within me like a memory and inspires me to create.

I know it is impossible to control nature. I fear and respect nature just as much as I love it. For us Japanese, nature is magnificent and its existence brings us many benefits but can sometimes harm us: earthquakes, typhoons, volcanoes, tsunamis… Japan still lives with the specter of natural disasters. When I am in nature, I think of death, the impermanence and the fragility of life: life crumbles and finally regenerates itself. Nature invites me to accept to blend in with its cycle.

I also must mention Wabi Sabi, which, from a Westerner’s perspective, appears to define my work. I find this comparison strange and fortuitous. First of all, it seems to me that it is intrinsically impossible to intentionally create a work embodying Wabi Sabi. I have therefore never tried to do it. If I had to try to interpret this word from the best of my knowledge, knowing that although I could give a definition, I may be wrong in my interpretation, I would say Wabi means modesty, the state of distancing oneself from earthly desires such as a good reputation, wealth, and being fashionable. I would say Sabi, on the other hand, means the type of silence one imagines in Ataraxia, in the absence of selfish thoughts. In short, Wabi Sabi is never deliberately created, it is impossible for me to express it consciously in my work. Rather, it is a form of pure beauty which evokes what might be, a feeling that comes from deep within the heart. If there is a Wabi Sabi spirit in my work, I think that spirit expresses itself in the heart of the beholder.”