Manami Ishimura
Manami Ishimura was born in Tokyo, Japan. A visual artist and educator, her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, including at the Shiga Kogen Roman Art Museum, Nagano, Japan; Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan; and the Fresh Winds Art Biennale, Suðurnesjabær, Iceland. Ishimura’s continued exploration of ways to celebrate universality of art across cultures had led her to contribute a permanent public art piece as a Windgate Artist in Residence at Arkansas Tech University. She attended artist in residencies including Franconia Sculpture Park, Minnesota, and Interlude Artist in Residency, New York. Ishimura received her BFA in Sculpture from Tama Art University in Japan and earned her MFA in Sculpture and Ceramics from Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi. She is an Assistant Professor of Art at Kenyon College.
Artworks
Project rendering for Weaving the Unseen, 2027
Weaving the Unseen is a public artwork that invites people to gather and share appreciation for the ecosystems that surround them, through collective contributions. The project is inspired by komomaki (菰巻き), a Japanese horticultural technique in which trees are wrapped with woven straw mats to protect them from insects and winter weather. Weaving the Unseen reflects the philosophy that gestures of care can transform, as opposed to simply an act of respect. This practice requires communal labor and seasonal awareness, cultivating a harmony between care, time, and ecology within the industrial urban context of Queens and surrounding boroughs.
Through community workshops, participants of all ages will be invited to weave the straw sheets and learn traditional techniques adapted for contemporary materials. For the final stage of their creation, the group will wrap the “trees,” transforming discarded industrial waste into a communal monument of renewal. By reimagining an ancient practice in an industrial landscape, Weaving the Unseen gestures toward new relationships between human care, material transformation, and ecological awareness. It asks: When we wrap our waste with care, are we concealing what we are ashamed of, or are we transforming it into something else? In this act of shared awareness, we may rediscover a breath that connects us to one another, and to the living systems that sustain us.