The theme is the rhizosphere, the soil zone surrounding a plant’s roots, a world of roots and root vegetables growing with pronounced vigor, spreading beneath the surface.

The theme also encompasses the microorganisms teeming there, as in the human body. Forming the foundations for the stems and leaves visible above, the world of roots plays an important role in absorbing moisture and nutrients like phosphoric acid essential for growth, which are then distributed various parts of the plant above. The roots owe their capacity to play this role to the rhizosphere, itself created by the rich abundance of microorganisms—it’s the microorganisms that absorb the moisture and nutrients and deliver them to the plant. Likewise, microorganisms are also present in the human body.

For this animation, we commissioned works from Makiko Tanaka, an artist living in France. She explores expressing motifs such as food that exists all around us as fictitious landscapes or events. The two new works presented here, “Théâtre de la terre” and “Sleeping Beauty,”* display her characteristic floating, pop art style in fantastical depictions of the rhizosphere. The threads around the branches are dyed with turmeric and beets and presented to recall roots and root hairs.

* “Sleeping Beauty” will begin showing in mid-October.

Yasuko Sato, Art Director

©︎makikotanaka

Makiko Tanaka
Artist. Born in Tokyo in 1975. Works primarily in watercolors, oils, pastels, pencil, and ceramics. Won the 12th Taro Okamoto Memorial Award for Contemporary Art in 2009. Dispatched to France in 2013 as a researcher by the Japan Agency for Cultural Affairs, which presented her with the opportunity to settle there and pursue her activities internationally. “La collection gastronomique,” a drawing collection published by HeHe, marked the start of her involvement in illustration. She designed “Macaron Baby,” the iconic symbol of Pierre Hermé Paris in Aoyama; also pens a running column in the online edition of Shiseido’s “Hanatsubaki.” Her activities going beyond the art world also draw attention.
http://tanakamakiko.com/