Mayumi Okabayashi

Artist-in-residence by invitation
12 January — 13 March 2025

Mayumi Okabayashi is a visual artist from Japan, currently based in Berlin. She studied graphic design in Kyoto and later continued her artistic education in Düsseldorf, where she earned the title of Meisterschülerin and received an Academy Diploma (Akademiebrief). From January 13 to March 13, 2025, she participated in a 60-day residency at A Bungalow Residency.

Her work consistently explores the quiet relationships between the visible and invisible, land and body, material and time, tracing layers of memory and traces. During her residency in Negros Occidental, she attentively listened to the presence of the local environment, creating works through collecting, observing, and dialoguing with natural materials.

In the exhibition Tracing Tracks, she presented several series. One of them, Coconut Diary – Tracing Roots, consists of daily drawings on coconut shells found in the garden or left after being eaten. By drawing traces on the inside of these shells, which she shared with dogs, cats, chickens, and ants, the work became a quiet ritual tracing everyday life and roots.

Additionally, working with fabric for the first time on site, she used local fibrous plants such as various grasses and sugarcane stalks to leave impressions, allowing the fabric itself to absorb the time and texture of the land. Engaging with unfamiliar materials became a way to awaken her own senses and memories.

This exhibition was organized as part of the ABungalow Residency Project, focusing on the natural environment of Negros Occidental and everyday local materials, quietly tracing the memory of the land and the passage of time.

Tracing Tracks

08.03.2025
Kapitana Gallery

Tracing Tracks showcases works created during her artist-in-residence period from January 12 to March 13, 2025.

The theme centers on the act of tracing sensations obtained through the five senses, encompassing processes of observation, recording, and shaping during her stay.

The exhibited works include Coconut Diary: Tracing Roots — a series of diary-like drawings based on the indispensable coconut, utilized in various ways in the region alongside Traces in Motion and Traces Beneath.

These pieces explore subtle yet undeniable traces and the imprints formed over time.