Alexa Kumiko Hatanaka documents humanity’s physical and emotional relationships with the natural world. Using traditional East Asian papermaking and printmaking techniques, Hatanaka often depicts the High Arctic, where she has been involved in community-engaged projects for over a decade. Moveable and Immoveable feature linocuts of the snowdrifts Inuit have used for centuries as natural navigational guides – snowdrifts now under threat from rising temperatures.
Recent research into the evolutionary origin of bipolar “disorder” suggests that it may have developed during the last Ice Age as an adaptive response to extreme climate variability. For Hatanaka, who lives with the condition, this research explains that it may have evolved as a sensitive attunement to nature by cultivating a spectrum of moods and illustrates why its persistence today could be helpful as the climate continues to change.
Namazu (2023) tells the Japanese legend of a catfish that thrashed about, causing earthquakes. Faultlines and Loneliness (2024) and Instability (2024) map collective psychological shifts using graphs that chart the steep rise in the usage of the words loneliness and instability over time. In the Giardini, Susceptibility to Gravity (2026), draws inspiration from koinobori, or carp flags. Made by sailmakers, these works soar in the winds that are intensifying in Venice, contributing to more frequent acqua alta.
—Claire Shea
