Upon my first visit to Japan, I became acquainted with the Shinto idea that everything around us is divine. It took me many years to understand this concept on a deeper level.
When I finally grasped it, I began to see beauty in many, even the most ordinary things: broken, worn objects, shiny new items, and lost belongings.
Thus, I started to collect my own assortment of unrelated items. Some I bought at flea markets, some I found by the sea, and some were given to me by friends. One thing remained constant: all these objects felt alive to me; they had stories that I enjoyed contemplating in my free time.
At some point, I began to create compositions from these items that visually expressed my feelings about visiting various sacred places in Japan.
In this way, each piece became a kind of altar for me.
I would create a composition, photograph it, and then dismantle it. I enjoyed the feeling that the physical form of this "altar" no longer existed, but the idea remained.
A temple can easily cease to be sacred.
Anything can become a temple.
The essence lies in the intention of those who build temples.
