From 31 August to 12 October, 2024, WKM Gallery is pleased to present “Meridiem”, Japanese artist Megumi Shinozaki’s first solo exhibition in Hong Kong. Shinozaki has attained recognition as the founder and creative director of edenworks, a creative studio that specialises in utilising flowers and plants to create artworks, installations, and experiences that function as catalysts for meaningful connection to people and nature. “Meridiem” is an artistic extension of her work with the studio, and will present a series of around 200 brand new paper flower works all handmade by the artist, as well as a fresh flower installation composed of local flora. These two contrasting approaches - one that makes use of paper to create eternal blossoms, the other a tribute to the ephemerality of the natural cycle of life - together represent the central theme of Shinozaki’s practice, in which the flower becomes a symbolic way to explore the profound area between alive and not, temporary and eternal.

Originally a florist, Shinozaki’s perspective was shaped by her experience working with flowers as objects with short life spans. Within the context of a store, flowers became commercial items that were either consumed or discarded; often, the amount being discarded caused Shinozaki to feel a sense of uneasiness and distress. This dissatisfaction with the wasteful system surrounding our thoughtless methods of flower consumption functioned as the starting point for laying the foundation of her philosophy: to fulfil the potential of these living beings and respect the full cycle of their existence, so that we may embrace the future.

Shinozaki takes a two-fold approach by working both with real flowers and creating flowers from paper. Her fresh flower installations are a natural evolution stemming from her florist background. While continuing to emphasise an artisanal Japanese sensibility rooted in concepts of balance and attention to detail, the installations represent a break from the strict confines of traditional florist work. For Shinozaki, they are a space of freedom that allow the flowers to realise the full potential of their defining traits: individuality and life. Hanging from the ceiling in such a way as to seem as if they were floating in space, the installation creates the illusion that gravity has disappeared and time has stopped; yet, in reality, time marches on, marked by the slow passing of the flowers as they shrink and shrivel. Whimsical and yet somehow simultaneously wistful, the inevitable nature of change, time, and death embedded within the work shines a spotlight on the beauty and preciousness of fleeting life.

As a counterpoint to this method, Shinozaki also creates paper flowers, of which there are around 200 featured in the exhibition. Depicting flowers with a subjective, graphical touch, the paper flowers are intended to be homages with a focus on human interpretation and artistic intention. The paper flowers are arranged within real stone vases– the opposite of the usual, which normally consists of real flowers within manmade vases. In the main exhibition space is a field of multi-coloured flowers, as vibrant as if they were under a bright afternoon sun. In the neighbouring space, where natural light filters in through windows overlooking the Hong Kong scenery, the flowers have become monochrome, as if we were seeing them in the dim dawn or dusk - a representation of the way that colours and saturation fluctuate in tandem with the time of day. Both series were created and installed by a team in a process that echoes the tenets of social sculpture; group connection and communication during the creation, installation, and deinstallation process, as well as methods of preserving and ethically recycling or disposing of materials, are just as central to Shinozaki’s practice as the concepts of the works themselves. The flower may be one of the most universal symbols of beauty in the world, but Shinozaki’s ability to allow experiences, connections, and new futures to unfold beyond their brief lifetimes reflects the true beauty that lies within them.