Art projects / portfolio
About Artist
About Artist
About Artist
January 03, 2023
January 03, 2023
January 03, 2023
Award name. Click here to edit me.
Award name. Click here to edit me.
Award name. Click here to edit me.
Graduating Art and Design student at school of Architecture MA city design (1st year) of Royal College of Art with Engineering back ground.
Graduating Art and Design student at school of Architecture MA city design (1st year) of Royal College of Art with Engineering back ground.
Graduating Art and Design student at school of Architecture MA city design (1st year) of Royal College of Art with Engineering back ground.
Project no31.
Why can’t we go outside of Somerset? – People still don’t know the power of cider.
January, 2023, Somerset, UK
Work shop, Label creation, Field study
This research is a collaborative project with other artists and a fieldwork workshop in Taunton in the Somerset region of South West England. We stayed at a private residence and investigated the surrounding area. Somerset is historically an apple cider producing region, and we toured an apple farm and cider factory. At the cider factory, we received a lecture from a local guide about the history of apple cider and the cider production process, and we sampled several ciders. It was an interesting fact that even though the ciders are made from the same apple, they differ in taste and bitterness depending on the production process. It was also noteworthy that compared to other alcoholic drinks such as beer, wine and whisky, it was sold cheaply to youth and the working class and was not widely exported or consumed outside the UK. In any case, since apple cider is always served in pubs, which are part of British culture, apple cider is thought to have had a major influence on British culture.
Based on my research in Taunton, I launched a project to design a fictional cider brand as a work of art. The background and purpose of this practice is not to simply create a new and novel cider brand, but to create this documentary based on an ‘imaginary cider culture’ in which cider is also available at high-end restaurants.
Interestingly, in Japan, which is also one of my home countries, ‘cider’ does not refer to cider, but to carbonated drinks with sugar. These drinks are widely loved by the public (e.g. the fact that Japan’s carbonated drink ‘Ramune’ is also considered a type of cider in Japan) and also has a considerable influence on my creative ideas.
Project no32.
Trace of Leonardo da Vinci - Here is Florence 2023
April, 2023, Milan/Florence, Itary
Narrative, Thought, Drawings
In April 2023, she received the International Prize Leonardo da Vinci at the National Museum of Science and Technology Leonardo da Vinci in Italy and travelled to Milan to attend the award ceremony. Upon her visit to Milan and receiving the International Da Vinci Prize, she began a small study and field trip about Milan and Leonardo da Vinci. She visited the church of Santa Maria delle Grazie, where she admired a mural of Da Vinci’s The Last Supper. The mural was bigger than she had imagined, and she was able to see it up close. She was more impressed by the fact that when the church was bombed, the walls on the sides were damaged enough to penetrate, but the mural of The Last Supper remained intact.
There are still many mysteries surrounding Da Vinci, but it is generally said that he was a person who excelled in science, anatomy, art, and various other fields of research, and was primarily active and researching in Milan and Florence. He is also said to have spent his later years in the Vatican and France. Due to the historical background of the time, most of his artistic works were religious paintings, but also he generated numerous drawings from scientific perspective. She began a workshop to digital analysis Da Vinci's religious murals and reproduce them as her own works. These scientific analyzes and personal studies became part of her new art works.
After Milan, she visited Florence. Her main purpose was to research and appreciate masterpieces such as Da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Raphael. Their paintings are representative masters of Renaissance art, and most of the works housed in the Uffizi Gallery are well-known, but what she was interested in was the people waiting in line to see the masterpieces. It looked exactly like a popular theme park, and she also noticed the artists who were doing the ‘souvenir business’ such as doing portraits around it.
Tired of the long lines, she ordered gelato and coffee at a downtown cafe and took a break. The city where da Vinci was once active has transformed into a popular theme park with queues everywhere, and the business of selling souvenirs and delicious gelato to ‘customers’ was reflected in the current situation in ‘Florence’ and she felt that the city was not bad at all.
Project no33.
Internet Irony - True Boutiques and False Art Galleries in New York
August, 2023, New York
Digital and Actual Experience, Photographic documentation
As part of the clothing project that she started in 2020, she visited New York to discuss a project with a local boutique shop. The first place she visited was a boutique district in the West Lower Manhattan. After having a meeting there, and being very satisfied with the environment and conditions, she communicated to the project staff that this area was comparable to or better than the photos she had checked of the store from London.
The second visit, after the meeting at the boutique, was to an art gallery with which she had been in regular contact for about three years. In 2020, she participated in the gallery’s online show during the pandemic, and she was very excited about visiting it. The gallery seemed to be located in New York’s huge Chinatown, but then she got close and was confused because the place was cluttered, but she tried to go to the address anyway.
She was shocked when she arrived in front of the gallery. The shutters were closed and there was a sign saying ‘For rent’. When she peeked inside through the gap in the shutter, she saw that there was indeed a space that could be used as a gallery space, but it was in a state of ruin. Furthermore, looking at the surrounding environment, she saw restaurants lined up in disarray, and although she wouldn’t say it was a terrible environment, it looked quite different from the ‘high-end art gallery in New York’ that she had seen in photos on the Internet.
Based on these two experiences, she proposed a work based on the theme of ‘The Trap of the Internet.’ Even if on Google Maps it looks beautiful and looks like a great business, service, or activity, there are cases where nothing actually exists or it is in ruin, and vice versa.
Something like this could also happen in the future when the world of the Metaverse becomes more advanced. For example, even if the Metaverse were to become the mainstream of the community, people would still ‘exist', so some kind of ‘space’ would be needed. However, if the space in the Metaverse is well-visualised, there may be no need to make the actual beautiful ‘space’, and if it were the other way around, a ‘secret garden’ might be born. As the Internet becomes more complete and the world of the Metaverse is established, there may be more incidents like this one where people are confused about the difference between ‘virtual’ and ‘actual’.
Project no34.
The Power of Flags –
Analysis and Reproduction of Medieval - Digital Art
June, 2023, Milan
Digital image analysis, Digital reproduction, Drawing
This project began in 2023 during a visit to Milan. She imported photographs of medieval art that she had collected in Italy into her computer and used image-editing software to visually investigate and study the ‘art’. This process included adjusting brightness, transparency, inversion, colour correction, and colour analysis.
Through this image-analysis process, she focused on three generated ‘flags’. She hypothesised that these ‘flags’ represented ‘power’ and ‘defensiveness’. This image-analysis project is intended to continue.
Project no35.
Japanese Painting and Tattoo Art: East Meets West
July, 2023, London
Tattoo Design, Acrylic Painting
This project attempts to combine traditional Japanese painting with contemporary tattoo art, which is primarily popular in the West. She collaborated with Daniel Gracia, a tattoo artist (as of 2023) working at Hammersmith Tattoo London, a nearby establishment in West Kensington where she previously had a studio.
The project explores how the motifs of Japanese painting are compatible with contemporary tattoo art, and questions whether the creative process of tattoo artists—who use the body itself as a canvas—can be defined as that of ‘living crafts’.
Project no36.
Thermo Hunting Collection – Post-COVID Era and Temperature Surveillance Society
(Detected Space Ship in Pandemic Cosmos)
May, 2020-, London
Thermography, Digital image, Photography
This project began serendipitously during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in 2020. During this period, she was inspired by thermal screening measures at airports and purchased a thermal camera.
Through various experiments with the thermal camera, she discovered that phenomena invisible to the naked eye become perceptible through the information of ‘temperature’, revealing a ‘different perspective’. This is particularly evident in living organisms and other objects that spontaneously generate ‘heat’, though it also applies to other serendipitous occurrences. Her ‘paintings’, created using this ‘heat’, remain ongoing.
Project no37.
Occult Performance – SUPERNATURAL on Your Side – Occult Theatre / Human Madness and Unseen Terror (Play)
2017/ December 2024-, London
Photography, Performance
This project was first initiated in her early days after moving to London. Owing to the stress of her first move to Europe, she experienced and imagined ‘occult’ phenomena in various everyday settings, which she primarily translated into photographic works.
Several years after creating her initial works, she attended a performance of Stranger Things in Soho, and was further inspired by its ‘supernatural’ narrative and sense of ‘theatre’. This series of artistic practices explores her interest in ‘theatre’, ‘strange occult phenomena’ in everyday life, and their ‘theatre’.
Theater is typically performed on a stage; however, if there is an ‘audience’, everyday environments can become a ‘stage’, and perhaps that ‘audience’ need not even be human.
Project no38.
Alba and Bra, Cities of Food:
A Journey Through the Fusion of Gastronomy and Art – A Magical Realism Literature of Food
December, 2024, Alba/Bra Italy
Food Documentary, Gastronomy Art, Novel writing
Since 2021, gastronomy, food as art, the possibilities of cuisine, and performance have frequently appeared in her artistic practice. This project centres on her visit to Alba and Bra, two Italian cities renowned for their culinary traditions.
Alba hosts the International Alba White Truffle Fair every autumn, attracting gourmets and chefs from around the world. Nearby Bra is the birthplace of the Slow Food movement and a centre for academic research in gastronomy. Through these cities, she explored the potential of food as an artistic medium, while also examining the fusion of the predominantly medieval heritage of northern Italy with contemporary cuisine.
Furthermore, London, where she is based, is regarded as one of the world’s leading centres of gastronomic culture, and her documentary-style journaling on this subject remains ongoing.
Project no39.
Three Stories – Two Places and One Poem
October, 2025, London/Hokkaido, Japan
Moving image, Poem writing
This video work and accompanying series of poems form part of her artistic practice, ‘Walkative Art’. In June 2024, she visited Epping Forest on the outskirts of London, where she walked through the woodland, filming and photographing her surroundings. In June 2025, she undertook a similar walk through a ‘巨木の森 (Forest of Giant Trees)’ in Hokkaido, Japan, documenting the experience on film.
These two video works were subsequently combined, with a narrative poem written in August 2025 incorporated to complete Three Stories.
The work centres primarily on the theme of ‘walking in the forest’ and presents a reflective, contemplative, and deeply personal exploration. By layering ‘walks’ and ‘thoughts’ across different moments in time, she seeks to create a four-dimensional expression. These ‘different times’ and ‘walks’ serve as a concise representation of her inner psychological landscape.
This work was awarded the Lorenzo il Magnifico Prize in the video category at the 15th Florence Biennale.
Project no40.
Extension from Environment – Rethinking Lasting Homeware
March 2026, London
Contemporary Ceramic, Pottery Art
This series of ceramic works marks her first foray into craft, exploring — from an architectural perspective — the ‘domestic, interior phenomena’ that emerge from incorporating the natural environment into the living space.
These works are available through Cluster London, a London-based art gallery and curatorial organisation.
Quoted from Cluster London:
“In her homeware creations, Amano draws extensively on architectural and engineering methodologies, translating environmental and spatial data into functional yet aesthetically integrated objects. Her designs incorporate regional GIS data provided by the Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, alongside architectural tools such as 3D CAD modeling, matrix diagrams, and typological analysis. This process transforms numerical data into forms that harmonize visually and tactically with the domestic environment. By approaching homeware not merely as utilitarian objects but as extensions of the terrain and architectural space, she explores new relationships between landscape, structure, and everyday life, offering innovative ways to experience and inhabit the living environment."
