A sound installation Resewing Her Life is inspired by something his grandmother once told him that her dream had been to become a pianist. Born in the early 1900s and raised in a patriarchal society, his grandmother, like many Japanese women of her generation, spent much of her life engaged in sewing as part of her domestic responsibilities. To Fujimoto, as a child, she looked as if she were playing a musical instrument whenever she sewed.

In this work, the sewing machine functions as the instrument she once “performed” on, while the piano exists not as a primary instrument but as a device that echoes and amplifies the sound of the sewing machine. Through this inversion, he seeks to draw attention to the rhythms and gestures of her labor, transforming domestic work into a form of musical expression.

The lace tablecloth under the sewing machine was purchased from a female bobbin lace maker during his visit to Sri Lanka. That lace-making tradition carries, like his grandmother’s sewing, a deep connection to histories shaped by oppressive rule, highlighting the resilience and creativity of women across cultures and generations.

The title of the work, “Her” refers not only to my grandmother but also to the many unknown women who lived under similar circumstances. Through this piece, he aims to recall their voices and, by raising them within the reverberations of sound, evoke the historical and social contexts they inhabited.