I first met Celine Wu when she and her husband, Yochi Nagata, had tables at the Review Santa Fe portfolio walk next to mine, and I recently had the pleasure of spending an afternoon with Yochi and Celine in Los Angeles. Celine was born in Hong Kong, attended college in Los Angeles, and now lives in Japan. Celine’s work was recently featured in Fraction Magazine and she has been exhibiting on both sides of the Pacific.

Celine’s body of work, Presence in Between, is presented in several different ways: on paper, and on scolls. The idea of a scroll is intriguing, as it works like a rolled book.

Sunlight travels in eternity, embracing us tightly at times and tenderly at other times. At its final destination, light reveals to us the absolute beauty of shadows and at the same time creates a spiritual world between two physical entities. It is this intangible sense of presence I have attempted to capture.

I was born in Hong Kong, and having lived in Kobe, Los Angeles, and Tokyo, my sensibility is continuously shifting back and forth between the Eastern and Western cultures to such an extent that I cannot even tell my original culture or mother tongue. This project is an ongoing journey in a quest for the identity dormant in my inner self, which is an absolute presence transcending cultural borders.

My works are printed on Japanese paper hand made by the 9th generation Living National Treasure, Master Ichibei Iwano, to enhance the naturalness and beauty of the images.

Images from Presence in Between