Mia Takemoto

My artwork celebrates transnationality and cultural hybridity. In Roots and Routes, I examine the places I feel rooted in and the places I have routed through. I'm interested in how movement shapes a dynamic identity. 

My movements through England, Japan, Scotland, Australia and Canada are captured in these amalgamated yet fragmented landscapes, composed of my real and imagined memories. The figures in the paintings journey through these landscapes; their micro journeys reflect the macro migration paths taken by myself and my family.

All paintings are painted in tempera, a paint made from egg yolk and powdered pigment which dates back to ancient Egypt and the early Christian era. They are collaged with wood veneer, including maple, fir, oak, cherry and eucalyptus: an act of bringing part of the real landscape into my imagined landscapes.