Description

To Untie is a wooden sculpture hand-carved from a pair of worn Dr. Martens boots that I have been wearing for more than ten years. After moving from Japan to the United States, being outside and socializing became one of my personal challenges. Whenever I was out in public, I often felt tense and tight, as if something inside me was tied up. The feeling reminded me of wearing a new pair of shoes: they must be tightly laced, and at first they can be painful. But as you continue wearing them, the leather slowly loosens and softens. What was once rigid and uncomfortable gradually becomes familiar and supportive. The shoes begin to show cracks and wrinkles, marks of time and use, yet they also become more comfortable and personal. By carving these worn boots in wood, I reflect on this process of adaptation. Just as the shoes slowly loosened through years of wear, I realized that my own tension had also begun to untie.