SOLACE

(ongoing)

Since childhood, I have been searching for a place to call home, yet I have never truly felt at home anywhere. After an unexpected emigration, this feeling deepened, and I began seeking a connection with the world beyond familiar contexts.

Walking through parks and forests in countries still unknown to me, I started to recognise something familiar—an echo of the feeling of belonging. Nature spoke a language beyond words. I called this process meditation on nature—a way of looking deeply, through which I began to feel harmony with myself and with the world around me.

Dualism—the opposition between the self and the outside world—is deeply rooted in Western thought, where the individual is often perceived as a distinct entity, separate from their environment and in search of an autonomous definition. This division of existence only reinforces the sense of separation, fueling both internal and external conflicts.

Since childhood, I have been searching for another perspective—one that carries meaning and hope. Nature brought me solace, revealing a vision of the world that is unified and indivisible.

In my dialogue with nature, I discovered that everything is connected, everything is one—alive and whole. This idea resonates with Eastern philosophy, which sees humans as inherently connected to the world rather than separate from it. As the Sufi poet Rumi wrote: “You are not a drop in the ocean, you are the entire ocean in a drop.”

I explore this fluid experience of life through documentary photography of nature and intuitive drawing. I photograph nature during therapeutic forest walks—a practice known in Japan as Shinrin-Yoku—capturing these moments of connection. In my studio, I continue this dialogue with nature through watercolour and charcoal. I photograph my drawings while they are still wet to preserve the moment and maintain a photographic approach within my project.

By incorporating abstract human forms, I emphasize their organic belonging to nature—their lines and textures merge with their patterns. Just like the veins of leaves, the ripples of water, and rock formations, the human body is woven from the same material.

There is no separation—everything is interconnected, part of a single living whole. Everything is one. Everything is Nature.