Seiran Tsuno

Venue: Kyu Bunkafukusogakuin

Curator’s Text: Title: 《Nen-nen-sai-sai》

This work was made after Tsuno's grandmother, who was a major influence for Tsuno’s passion for fashion, became bedridden, and is essentially an haute couture piece of clothing for her grandmother. It is evident in the clothing, made using fabrics collected by her grandmother and a 3D pen, that deliberate care has been taken to collaborate with her grandmother to make a piece of clothing that thoughtfully reflects her grandmother’s changing physical needs - soft fabrics for areas that touch the skin, and a unique design that allows the clothing to be worn even while on a nursing bed. The title of this work comes from a phrase often spoken by her grandmother, "Every year, the flowers bloom similarly, but people change year after year." Featuring motifs of peony flowers, the work embodies the familial love between Tsuno and her grandmother while also alluding to the blurred boundaries of life and death that become apparent within the context of home caregiving.

In addition to her artistic career, Tsuno works as a psychiatric nurse, practicing “self-directed research,” a self-care method in which patients take everyday experiences and challenges and approach them with their peers as “research themes.” For Tsuno, “research” involves confronting oneself. Currently, Tsuno studies the relationship between clothing and "fat" bodies at Tokyo Institute of Technology. As evidenced by the drawings on display, this work also explores how Tsuno and her grandmother engage with their "fat" bodies, representing one of the outcomes of a kind of "self-directed research." The result is a deeply personal and deliberate endeavor that goes beyond conventional psychiatric research.

Artist Profile: Photo: Kohei Shikama

Seiran Tsuno
Seiran Tsuno (b. 1990) worked at a psychiatric hospital for 5 years after graduating a college of nursing. She worked on and exhibited ornaments for herself and others while a student and continued to study at coconogacco, a fashion school led by Yoshikazu Yamagata, during her time working at the hospital.
Tsuno was selected as the only Japanese among the finalists for ITS Contest 2018 where her clothing made of 3D pens gained wide attention. In October 2019, Tsuno began to work at Bethel’s House, a base of regional activities for individuals with mental illnesses, located in Hokkaido, Japan and continued her research and practice. For Tsuno, Bethel’s House was the starting point for her “Tojisya-Kenkyu (self-directed research）” which is her attempt to pursue the new possibilities in fashion.
In October 2021, Tsuno joined the research group of Asa Ito (Professor, Institute for Liberal Arts, Tokyo Institute of Technology) and continues to explore the ways to face and deal with “fat” physique through collaborating on the production of clothing.