Corinne Okada Design - Sixteen Hours Ago Butterfly

Sixteen Hours Ago

2006

Size: 41" x 32" x 2.5"

Media: Magnet wire, silk handkerchiefs from Occupied Japan printed with vintage rice bag images, silks and paper printed with American leaflets dropped on Japan during WWII, hand dyed silk printed with images of artist’s grandfather and relatives, Chinese preserved fruit wrappers, produce netting, mini shoyu bottle caps, glass beads, plastic sushi grass and bamboo pole.

Currently in the studio of artist

Photo: George R. Young

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The white silk is printed with images of leaflets dropped on Japan by U.S. aircrafts during WWII. One leaflet is an important one dropped after the bombing of Hiroshima. Its text starts with “Sixteen hours ago an American airplane dropped one bomb on Hiroshima…” My grandfather was a 2nd Lieutenant in the US Army Air Force Intelligence branch during WWII and served in the Pacific interrogating captured Japanese soldiers. After the war he spent a year with the U.S. Occupational forces in Japan. He visited family in the Nagasaki area. The food wrappers are Chinese Chan Pui Mui wrappers. The Rose images on the wings are from rice bags printed on silk. All of the white silks used in the sculpture were given to my grandfather during the Occupation. They were given by family in Japan as gratitude for the rice my grandfather helped send from Japanese Americans in Hawaii.

Corinne Okada Design - Nature