After the Storm : Artwork 1

Fall seven, rise eight: the count of risings exceeds the count of fallings by exactly one, which means the final position is always standing. Japanese Buddhist thought, which informs the sensibility behind this proverb, does not regard falling as failure — it regards the refusal to rise as the only meaningful failure. The Daruma doll, Japan's most beloved folk object, is weighted at the base so that every time it is knocked over it returns upright: it is sold to people beginning a new project or pursuing a difficult goal, and they paint in one eye at the start and the second eye when the goal is achieved. Nana Korobi Ya Oki is the linguistic equivalent of the Daruma: a ritual of acknowledgement that falling is not an exception to the project but part of it. The most direct resilience piece in the collection — for a space where someone is in the process of getting back up.