kodama series

Kodama i, 2026, 150×100cm, acrylic on raw linen

The paintings in Kodama explore landscape as a living presence, shaped by memory, rhythm, and an intuitive connection to the natural world. The title refers to the spirits of Japanese folklore believed to inhabit ancient trees. Rather than depicting these spirits directly, the series uses the idea of Kodama as a way of thinking about landscape, where presence is sensed through colour, movement, and the spaces between forms.

Drawing on memories of the Middle East, the paintings extend this idea beyond the forest. Layered fields of earth tones shift between forest canopies, mountain forms, and rolling dunes. Slender dark lines rise through the compositions like trunks, roots, or pathways, while areas of exposed linen create a sense of light and openness. The landscape moves between abstraction and recognition, becoming a place shaped as much by memory as by observation.

Kodama reflects on the ways memory, spirit, and landscape become intertwined. The paintings suggest that presence is not bound to a single place, but can be found wherever a deep connection to the land is formed. Through this lens, the landscapes of the artist's Middle Eastern heritage become sites where the unseen is carried and quietly felt.

* All works from the Kodama series have been acquired and are now held in private collections.