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WIP (WORK IN PROGRESS)

A Diarist's Table

12/20/2020

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I have set my table in the manner of a 10th century poet. Sei Shonagon was a highly educated woman of acerbic wit, lighting fast imagination and a keen eye for fashion and manners. She was famous for her diary, called “The Pillow Book.” 

Shonagon writes:
“One day a minister brought the Empress a bundle of notebooks. 
‘What shall we do with them?’ Her Majesty asked me. ‘The Emperor already has enough.’
‘Let me make them into a pillow,’ I said.
“Very well,” said her Majesty. “You may have them.” 
I now have a vast quantity of paper at my disposal and I set about filling the notebooks with odd facts, stories from the past, and all sorts of other things, often including the most trivial material.”

I have set my table with modern, ancient objects that might have delighted her:
  • Wrinkled momi paper representing a flowing river 
  • Unpainted wooden table
  • Unpainted wooden cup filled with ink
  • Bamboo straw with a paper umbrella
  • Eating utensils of chopsticks and calligraphy brush resting on an old-fashioned comb and a coaster of black origami
  • Tablecloth of mulberry paper with flowing hiragana and kanji script
  • Tray of sandalwood Buddhist prayer beads and incense
  • Paper boat carrying chiyogami wrapped clams 
  • Shuttlecocks on a plate made of banana leaves
  • A tiny tin of rouge  
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  • PORTFOLIO
    • FEMINISM >
      • HILLARY
      • ALL DOLLED UP
    • RESISTANCE & POLITICS >
      • I DO BELIEVE
      • HYPER-PARTISANNALIA
      • OUR HEARTS BEAT AS ONE
    • CULTURAL >
      • KITSUNE
      • YOU ARE NOT FORGOTTEN
      • PLEASURE QUARTERS
      • WIND TRAVELER
      • HIRO
    • ENVIRONMENTAL
  • WIP BLOG
  • ABOUT
    • EXHIBITIONS
    • RESUME
  • CONTACT