Asumi Mizuo Drawing a Sea
Drawing a Sea is a site-specific light installation that traces an imaginary shoreline with string lights that will rest 40 metres above sea level on the ground of Western Park. This height set out for the lights reflects the highest rise of water in sea-level recorded in a small cove in Miyako City in the recent Japanese tsunami.
Even with an abundance of video footage of the tsunami engulfing the land, it is hard to grasp what people actually went through on that day. Asumi hopes that as visitors wander in and out of the surface of this imaginary tsunami, the incomprehensible will become comprehensible.
Asumi Mizuo
Asumi Miso is originally from Japan and has lived in New Zealand for the past 14 years. A practicing artist with a Masters in Fine Arts from the University of Auckland, Asumi has actively exhibited in and outside of Auckland since 2005.
Her practice is project based and uses various media, including photography, installation and sculpture. Asumi often engages with historic issues surrounding Japan, especially on WWII, in relation to New Zealand. Notable recent projects include the Kintsugi (2011) Crown Lynn work, in which she repaired the iconic pottery brand with traditional Japanese mending techniques, and the Signs for Mechanics Bay (2010) public art installation, addressing the historical coastline along Beach Road in central Auckland.
Asumi would like to thank Cameron Rowlands, Tim Kidd and George Mitchell for their help with this project.