I know this is really shameless and impudent…and also I am aware that my design is not exactly Anthropologie taste. However, I am wondering if there is a possibility that Anthropologie is interested in using my pattern (with invasive / endangered / regional plants and insects) for  a part of the shopping bag or display purposes.

Artwork statement excerpt : Look close this wallpaper, you can find plants and insects in the pattern. Well, actually the pattern is made from nothing but the plants and insects. These are all on the endangered red list plants and insects in KYOTO prefecture researched in 2015. I drew all the subjects individually and arranged in the wall paper design.

More about the red list wallpaper project → Go to red list wallpaper page

Sample additional design white
These were sample pattern designed using the same red list plants and insects after my show. It didn’t come out as actual products.
Sample additional design red

We all face to daily struggles like, if we should follow our desire (what to buy, what to eat, what to choose…so on) or we should make an environmentally friendly decision. It is obvious if you ask, but it is not easy. I myself is certainly not a role model, not at all…but at the same time, we all know this is not a problem we can ignore.

My wallpaper projects are reminder to myself. The red list is the first one and there is one more wallpaper installation, and it was inspired by a study called “Beta-for”, researching the way to support biodiversity in German forest. (See the bottom)

These were designed to be a part of my show and also made to be reminder to myself. These days, I start hoping that as many people as possible to know this project and share my struggles.

 I was in NYC just a month ago, and when I visited the Anthropologie store in Chelsea market, I dreamed if my wallpaper was used for the display or shopping bags….

Title:  Beta-For-est wallpaper Germany 2023 

Walking through a thick forest, it feels like I am surrounded by beautiful deep green walls… taking a deep breath, listening to the birds song. We all know how wonderful it is, but are all forests the same? Have you considered how many species in the forest you are in, and do you know what the healthy population looks like?

After the visit to the special forest, Universitätsforstamt Sailershausen, where the university of Würzburg (Julius Maximilians Universität Würzburg) manage and research the new way of support biodiversity by letting dead woods stay on the forest ground after its long life, opened my eyes. 

It was semi dark in the dense forest. There was a very old dead wood lying on the ground among low, deep green floor plants, and our guide, Mr.Junginger, one of scientists from the University,  pointed some mushroom and a tiny beetle around it. We visited a big open area in the middle of the forest. It was a gap newly appeared after a big tree fell, and now it created a booming new green patch covered with a completely different set of plants. Butterflies were flying under the bright sunshine.

This wallpaper is my reaction inspired by the walk and talk. The research covers a wide range of fields, and the title comes from BETA-FOR, one of the studies of the research. At first, it sounded like “better for”, and later I learned what the BETA-FOR actually means. I simply borrowed the sound, and it carries my hope for better forest, better future.

This is my second wallpaper project, and the first one was about endangered plants and insects in Kyoto, my city of birth. The wallpaper projects are reminders to myself that we can be blind to the beauty and also the devastating problems in nature. Like “wallpaper”, it is there in front of us, but we tend to ignore it as a vague background decoration.

More information about 

BETA-FOR  https://www.uni-wuerzburg.de/en/beta-for/about-beta-for/

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