Ashes to Ashes

2022

Dimensions variable

Fallen timber, acrylic urethane paint

Commissioned by River Valley Arts Collective in collaboration with Stoneleaf Retreat. Presented at Al Held Foundation. Curated by Alyson Baker. Currently on view at Stoneleaf Retreat. Photo credit: Chris Kendall

“Fukuyama approached her work for this site (Al Held Foundation) like a mortician, painting dead tree parts to resuscitate the vitality they once possessed, albeit in an eerily altered state. Her two largest sculptures on view have iridescent hues reminiscent of the emerald ash borer beetle that is notorious for decimating Hudson Valley forests. Jewel-like yet macabre, they are placed in the site line of a dead ash tree, still standing but devoid of life. The other sculptures are painted to take on qualities of fire, fishing lures, and colors extracted from the region’s horizons. Altogether, the installation is designed according to the principles of ikebana, the art of Japanese flower arrangement in which the negative space around an object is regarded as part of the composition. Fukuyama’s attention to both the emptiness and the visible decay within landscape, along with her material and color references result in a poetic meditation on mortality.”