‘Inner Worlds’ is a new series mapping creatives’ psyches through the places where they work. Sometimes refuge, sometimes battleground, these rooms, studios, and spaces enable reflection, experimentation – and ultimately art-making.
In the inaugural episode, Mai Miyake welcomes us into her new studio and home in Japan’s Shiga Prefecture. Not far from Kyoto, Shiga is surrounded by mountains and rests on the shores of the country’s largest body of freshwater, Lake Biwa. ‘It’s very comforting for me to see vast water,’ she says.
In her work – which spans multi-media, installation, and sculpture – Mai seamlessly blends contemporary Japanese and Western cultures with elements from the natural world. This results in practice in which time slows down, as she contemplates purpose and origin. During the visit, it’s an idea that surfaces as she reflects on what the new space means to her. ‘My studio is a sanctuary,’ she says, ‘In my former studio, it was just, go into the studio, get your job done and then go back. Now, because it’s not only a studio, it’s my home, it becomes more personal.’
Mai Miyake is represented by Ora-Ora (Hong Kong).
Director: Joseph George
Director of Photography: Nobutaka Shirahama
Interviewer / Translator: Saka Matsushita
Editor: I Han Chen
Color: Victor Ivanov
Nowness
Creative Director: Bunny Kinney
Managing Director: Gavin Humphries
Video Commissioner: Katie Metcalfe
Producer: Noor Miah
Video Editor: Harry Bowley
Commissioned by Alicia Reuter and Jeanne-Salomé Rochat for Art Basel
#Worlds #Mai #Miyake
