about  Yoko-Bon

Raised amid the rich history and nature of Nara, Japan, Yoko-Bon began her creative path after working in sculptural production for museums and aquariums, pursuing her practice as a self-taught artist.

Her work unites two seemingly opposing elements: the engraved lines traditionally carved into hard materials and the soft, tactile surface of felt—an unprecedented and singular mode of expression.

By engraving into felt—a material that gently envelops and evokes a sense of motherhood—Yoko-Bon transcends the accumulated images associated with it, pioneering a new realm of expression she calls “Felt Engraving.”

For Yoko-Bon, felt has been a familiar and intimate material since childhood—like an extension of her own skin. It resonates with the body’s memory, scars, and the invisible traces of lived experience.

The delicate lines etched onto the felt’s surface reflect layers of memory, the traces of choices made, inner resolutions, conflicts, wounds, and prayers. Each work becomes an entry point through which viewers can overlay their own sensibilities and deepen their personal narratives.

As seen in the animal motifs of the Shōsōin treasures and the lotus petals beneath the Great Buddha of Tōdaiji Temple, engraving has long been an enduring means through which people have inscribed memory and prayer across time. By applying this ancient technique—once reserved for hard materials—to felt, Yoko-Bon expands the expressive possibilities of both medium and gesture.

Through this act of engraving onto felt—a material historically marked by “feminine” or “domestic” connotations of handicraft—she reinterprets its meaning, traversing between past and present, prayer and the body, memory and regeneration.

The intricate lines carved into the soft felt surface embody an act of “engraving memory onto a tangible body.” The traces inscribed upon the material reflect the artist’s own corporeality, consciousness, and her ever-evolving relationship with the world.


 

歴史と自然豊かな奈良の地で育ったYoko-Bonは、博物館や水族館の造形制作を経て、独学で創作の道へと進みました。 

彼女の作品で用いるのは硬質な素材に刻まれてきた「線刻」と、柔らかな「フェルト」という相反する要素を結びつける唯一無二の表現です。 Yoko-Bonは人を優しく包み、母性的なフェルトに線刻することで、素材に 蓄積されたイメージを超克し、「フェルト線刻」で新しい世界を切り拓きます。 

Yoko-Bonにとって、幼少期から親しんできたフェルトは、身近で自身の「皮膚」のように親密な存在。彼女にとっては身体の記憶や傷跡と響き合う素材でもあります。 

フェルトの表層に刻まれた緻密な線は、記憶、その時々の選択の軌跡、内なる決断、葛藤、傷跡、そして祈りといった層を映し出し、作品に触れる人それぞれが自身の感覚を重ね、物話を深める入口となります。

正倉院宝物の鳥獣文様や東大寺大仏の台座の弁に見られるように、線刻は古来、人々が時代を超えて記憶や祈りを託してきた表現です。 本来は装飾や祈りの痕跡を刻むために硬い素材に施されてきた「線刻」をフェルトに結びつけることで、彼女は新たな表現の可能性を広げました。 その伝統的な行為を、Yoko-Bonは「手芸」という刻印を押されたフェルトに線刻することで、素材の意味を再解釈。過去と現在、祈りと身体、記憶と再生を行き来させます。 

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柔らかなフェルトの表層に刻まれた緻密な線は、まさに「触れられる身体に 記憶を刻む」行為であり、素材に刻まれた痕跡は、アーティスト自身の身体性や思考、世界との関係性を映し出しています。