Harumi Ori “I am Here”

NowHere

[Image: Harumi Ori "November 9, 2021 3:33pm" 78 x 98 in.]

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NowHere presents “I am Here” by Brooklyn based Japanese artist Harumi Ori.

A moment just passed you by. There goes another one, and another. These things may feel ephemeral by virtue of being so small, but moments make up the hours, days, weeks, and years of our lives. There’s nothing more valuable.

For the artist Harumi Ori, each second is sacred. In her work, she freezes everyday moments and makes monuments to them. In choosing to photograph ordinary places, Ori elevates their sense of setting with special significance. Then, using the photos she’s taken, Ori sculpturally recreates each crowded spot using industrial mesh, a humble, everyday material that also reminds us of the temporary nature of construction sites.

Seeing Ori’s life-sized orange figures in the wild can be a thrill that offers us a sense of the uncanny and the familiar at once, like a mirror reflecting our humanity back at us. At first glance there might be something whimsical in these sculptures. But upon closer scrutiny we sense a deeper meaning embedded in them.

By showing us these crowds of everyday people going about their business together and apart, Ori reminds of the dance that occurs between all of us while we’re simply living our lives. All walks of life are represented in Ori’s work, from all strata of society. By rendering everyone in the color orange—a shade which the artist says is holy to her—Ori equalizes her subjects and presents us with a visual representation of the ease with which we might coexist.