The Waribashi Project (Supporting documentation)

Artist's Statement

Waribashi (disposable chopsticks) are so pervasive in Japanese culture that they are rendered invisible. This can be true for any aspect of culture that has become an icon anywhere in the world (For American culture, it may be the freeway or the hamburger). As an artist, I believe it is my responsibility to ask why. As a person of Japanese descent having grown up with chopsticks, I can appreciate the feeling of two clean pieces of wood bringing soft rice to my lips. It is a feeling of connectedness - a ritual of nourishment practiced by my ancestors for thousands of years. But as a human being, I am a caretaker of this planet. Where is the "wa" (harmony) in the use of single-use chopsticks? Am I in harmony with nature? Can this harmony be improved? Are the feelings I have about waribashi just a nostalgic yearning for something deeper? For me, as an American, the waribashi is an oxymoronic metaphor of chaos and order in Japanese culture, a symbol of life and death that I consider everytime I eat. In this contained existence of extremes, I hope for a birthing of enlightenment. (June 1999, Tokyo, Japan, DKO)

Project Description & more documentation

"Transformation/Possibility: The Waribashi Project" was a one-month project I did in collaboration with Design Festa, an arts organization located in the Harajuku area of Tokyo, Japan. This collaboration was arranged through the Nichibei Pathfinding Opportunity Program (NPOP) of the Japan-U.S. Community Education and Exchange Program (JUCEE). I coneceived the project while doing research about Japan and the environment. The project had several goals: to encourage dialogue about art and the environment to make waribashi (disposable wooden chopsticks) more visible as a reusable resource for art and other applications to provide an accessible art experience to the viewing public to raise awareness about the impact waribashi have on the Japanese and global environment to consider the cultural role waribashi have in Japanese society.

The project had four stages:

I. ATSUMERU/COLLECTION of waribashi and waribashi data

I worked with Daisuke Miyake, volunteer and painter, and Takashi Kashima, graphic designer and a staff member of Design Festa. Daisuke established relations with 11 small local noodle shops and restaurants. The contriubiting restaurants seperated their chopsticks from other trash and put them into plastic bags that Daisuke picked up on a reuglar basis. Over a period of about 12 days, over 15,000 chopsticks were collected. Each of these chopsticks were hand-washed and dried by me and Diasuke everyday. During this phase, the project also surveyed restaurant owners and pedestrains in the Harajuku area regarding their thoughts about chopsticks. These were recorded on tape. The survey was not meant to be exhaustive or scientific. The sound bites were later used as part of the final installation.

II. JIKKEN SURU/ EXPERIMENT with waribashi

While collecting the chopsticks I began exploring them as an artmaking material by building sculptural experiments. Here are two examples.

Community Art Workshop

I lead an "Experiment with Chopsticks" workshop at Design Festa in conjunction with the show and part of the project. Here participants were encouraged to invent things with waribashi with art supplies provided by Design Festa. The purpose of this event was:

to create a means for participants to experience waribashi in a new way
to consider reuse as an alternative to throwing waribashi in the trash
to consider other possible uses for waribashi
to experience a creative process with familiar material
to bring people together in the name of art and have fun .

(I am the one with the tye-dye shirt in the photo). Stay tuned for samples of student work to be added to the Teaching/Student Work section.

III. KEIKEN SURU/EXPERIENCE

From June 16-19, 1999, the project culminated in an exhibition of new work that I created during the residency. Go to my portfolio section to see.

IV. RISAIKURU SURU/ RECYCLE

After the exhibition, several volunteers and I sorted the chopsticks seperating bamboo from wood.

My original intention was to have the bamboo chopsticks be reused for Design Festa's garden and have the wooden chopsticks send to a Japanese paper company, Shinojiseishi. Due to circumstances beyond my control, even after numerous attempts to communicate with my collaborators, I was not able to verify the whereabouts of the chopsticks since my return to the US. I can say that the project did "slow down the waste stream" while making art. I hope to produce Waribashi Project II in the San Francisco Bay Area sometime in the near future.

Reviews and news coverage under construction

Video short by Jake Richardson "Donna Keiko Ozawa's Waribashi Project" Part I of II (2004-5)

Video by Jake Richardson "Donna Keiko Ozawa's Waribashi Project" Part II of II (2004-5)

Other Web sites

These works can also be seen at the following web sites:

Pamela Z - Bay area sound artist, musician, composer
Design Festa
Japan-U.S. Community Education and Exchange (JUCEE) - the organization which sponsored the internship program Updates Stay tuned for Waribashi Project II which is in early stages of development.

If you are interested in getting involved in the production of a large installation involved recycled chopsticks, please contact me at your earliest convenience. Thanks!