Nana Shiomi – Twin Tea Bowls

‘First thing on any morning, we make tea’, writes Nana Shiomi. In her print Twin tea Bowls, the tea becomes a symbol of peaceful life; a moment of clarity and reflection.

The two tea bowls are Japanese Yunomi and stand side by side on a stage or Garan –do. In Japan a Garan-do is an empty room where monks meditate. This empty space is the beginning and centre of Shiomi’s universe: the stage for her icons to play out their ideas. This stage has receding lines of western perspective, a perfect metaphor for the dichotomy between the Japanese and westernised vision of her work.

Shiomi’s woodcut prints are a combination of relief and intaglio water-based printmaking, rooted in the traditional methods of the Japanese ukiyo-e woodblock printmaking. She prints by hand with a baren, and has added her own experimental printing techniques and tools.

Shiomi studied at the Tama Art University, Tokyo, She moved to London in 1989 and attended the Royal College of Art in 1991. Her work is in the collections of the Victoria & Albert Museum; Ashmolean Museum; Oriental Museum; Pallant House Gallery; Embassy of Japan in the UK; Aberystwyth University; Clare Hall, Cambridge; Wimbledon School of Art; Brunel University; Royal College of Art; Durham University; John Snow College; University of Chichester collection; Bronx Museum of the Arts (USA); Johnson Museum, Cornell University (USA); National Museum in Gdansk (POLAND); Douro Biennial Collection Museum (PORTUGAL); Tama Art University Museum (JAPAN)