Koro Ihara exhibits works from three projects: MADE IN THE GROUND, CYCLING, and NESTED. Her artistic concept moves through biological inquiry tied to the life cycle, sublimating living and organic materials through sculptural techniques rooted in Japanese tradition. In the DYEING series, I dye silk with natural materials and visualize the process through which color seeps and emerges. The raw ingredients — cochineal insects, silkworm droppings, indigo, berries, and other gifts of the natural world — give no visual clue as to what color they will yield. It is only when water, colorless and transparent, is introduced that color is born, slowly saturating the white cloth. These same materials have long been used as dyes and pigments in food and clothing — they are the hidden origins of colors we absorb into our lives without a second thought. What’s more, the silk cloth and the silkworm droppings share a common source: both are born from the silkworm itself. Through the act of drawing color from materials bound to living things, I trace back the “cycle” of nature and the very “origins” of color.