For her solo exhibition, Kami no Kotoba, Paper Words, Karen Trask presented six sculptural works. All but one of the works was created during the artist’s research and creation residency at the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec studio in Tokyo. The focus of her residency was the exploration of poetry and calligraphy and their relationship with paper, as well as various techniques for manipulating paper, such as Shifu (making a paper thread out of a sheet). This exhibition is a response to that research.

Poetry is at the heart of the exhibition. Four poems by Karen Trask have been translated from French and English into Japanese by Masashi Ogura. With the help of moulding techniques, the words of the poems take physical form in paper – washi made from kozo, the main plant used to produce handmade paper in Japan. The only work that was not created in Japan is a dictionary, completely remade from spun paper.

For the works Kami no Kotoba, Paper Words I was interested in exploring where language comes from, the origin and evolution of written and spoken words and positing language is a living organism.

Karen Trask, 2025