Interview with Saeri Kiritani, whose work "100 Pounds of Rice" was selected as part of the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition 2013 exhibition.

Saeri Kiritani writes:

 

After I began living in the U.S., I came to take a more detailed notice of my eating habits: "I am mostly made of rice!" I thought. In "100 Pounds of Rice," the self is literally and symbolically reconstructed out of rice. 

 

Using Elmer's Glue and rice, even translucent rice noodles as hair, I re-created my likeness as a "rice woman." The sculpture is standing on a mountain of rice that the female figure both triumphantly emerges out of and drowns down into. 

 

Ordinary things I had never paid attention to in Japan became unique in my everyday life here. I look different; I eat rice; I am an Asian. I drink green tea; when I speak I have accent; and I do in fact behave differently. I find myself torn—sometimes I deliberately try to appeal to my natural existence and sometimes I just want desperately to blend in.

 

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"100 Pounds of Rice" /  Saeri Kiritani / Rice, rice noodles, Elmer's Glue, epoxy glue, wood and metal sticks, 2010 / Collection of the artist

 

Music: "Budding" by Broke for Free: http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Bro...

 

 

Used under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (aka Music Sharing) License.

 

More on the Portrait Competition at http://portraitcompetition.si.edu