Description
Unique artist-signed sakura petals enclosed in a petri dish, from Yuri Shimojo’s sold-out exhibition Memento Mori.
Yuri Shimojo, in collaboration with Maria Takeuchi and Alec Fellman, created a site-specific installation at Praise Shadows. In the center of the gallery rests a bed of white cleansing salt with 108 glass petri dishes placed upon it; the accompanying sound, Petal Mori, a 108-minute looping soundscape, wherein a bell rings once per minute, simultaneously illuminating one of the 108 petri-dishes.
“108” is a sacred number in the Dharmic religions, including Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism; in Japan, at the end of each year, Buddhist temples chime their bells 108 times to close out the old year and welcome in the new one.
Each petri dish encloses three Sakura petals made of torn washi paper, then tied closed, as if in tribute, with fine silk thread.