ROOTS & ROUTES: A solo exhibition of Mia Takemoto

RIANA RAOUNA Gallery is pleased to present the online exhibition "Roots & Routes" by Mia Takemoto. Comprising of ten paintings, the exhibition foregrounds the artist's exploration of transnationalism and the formation of identity. As a British Japanese artist, born in Australia and currently living in Scotland, Mia Takemoto explores the notion of identity as being dynamic, and formed by the individual's movement and multiple displacement rather than being focused on the binary idea of "homeland" and "new land".

The series of paintings "Hybrid Landscapes" feature figures amidst imagined landscapes composed of inky mountains and decorative surfaces. As the artist explains, "these landscapes draw on original and found photographs, real and imagined memories, feelings of attachment and detachment. These dichotomies create fragmented yet amalgamated landscapes." 

In her latest series of works "Roots and Routes", Takemoto utilises different types of wood associated with the countries she has moved through, namely Scotland, Japan and Australia. Each veneer belongs to a different tree that she associates with her own routes; cherry with her hometown Warrington, oak with Scotland, fir with British Columbia, maple with Japan, and eucalyptus with Australia.

Like in all of Takemoto's works, these paintings are created with material the artist prepares herself, such as egg tempera, ink and handmade paper drawing attention to ancient Asian techniques where materiality is as important as the finished work of art.