HONEBANA (Bone Flowers)
Pieces made out of fur and bones of dead animals mimicking the shape of flowers as a manifestation of how ephemeral our lives are and, showing that we too will wither and die.

There are many ways of looking at death. One of them is that death is not the end, that we change forms after dying and continue to live as memories inside other people’s hearts. Our flesh turns to bones and return to dirt, where it will become part of flowers, weeds, clouds, and so on, always transmigrating in this world without ever leaving. This is what the Japanese call “the impermanence of worldly things.” People in modern societies are estranged from this flux of life and death; they obscure death, avoid aging and loathe sickness.

The HONEBANA (Bone Flowers) series is Tokushige’s life’s work as an artist, but not only that. It is also He considers the HONEBANA (Bone Flowers) series to be his life’s work as an artist, but not only that: it is also his way of returning once more to the root of life and death in search for the new form of someone’s soul and rebirth state. In the process for creating his work the artist collects animal carcasses, dissects them, removes the bones, and finally makes the flowers. He then prepares documents about the pieces, photographs them, develops the photos, and returns the portrayed flowers to the soil. This ritualistic process – the concept behind HONEBANA – brings to life a unique artwork created out of the symbols of death: bones.

The expression of Tokushige is not only about photographing and developing the photos of his work. The mystical beauty of the bone flowers – portrayed through his lenses – makes us inquire about the meaning of life and death.

This exhibition presents some of his previous works, and it is only a preview of a private exhibition scheduled to take place in March.

Artist Official Page
Hideki TOKUSHIGE

GALLERY KOGURE