Distanced Relations

 MIYA HANNAN

ARTIST STATEMENT 2025

I view the world as layers and linkages of history—a chain of lives and events that leads from one to the next. The landscape serves as a record of these histories, holding stories and memories etched into its form. This philosophical perspective emerged during my time working in the medical field in Japan. There, the souls of the dead live on, spirits exist within nature, and land retains its destiny—people inherit the histories of the land on which they live. I am interested in the relationship between humanity and the information trapped in nature. 

The ocean has archived a thousand years of historical stories, both physically and metaphorically. "Deep Echoes" is from my project, "Crossing the Ocean," which is inspired by the story of Japanese immigrants who crossed the ocean around 1900 to have a new life. Thinking about how much hope, expectation, and fear they held when crossing the ocean, I deeply share the same feeling as an immigrant who also crossed the Pacific Ocean for a better life. This project is a reminder of such individuals and the richness of the ocean. 

Installation view of Distanced Relations at Motomoto Gallery. Soot on paper 81” x 29”, 2023

"Reviving Immigrant Memories: Layering Meiji-Era Migrant Workers with the Present"

A wonderfully thoughtful write up in Japan’s Nishinihon Newspaper by Yasuko Kawaguchi