林田 真季

Maki Hayashida

The exhibition presents new work by artist Maki Hayashida as a photographic installation, based on research into the social issues surrounding planted forests in Japan. Of the forests covering 70% of Japan's land area, 40% are planted forests, most of which were widely planted after World War II. However, shifting societal needs and economic priorities have left many of these forests unlogged, leading to their neglect. As such, in contrast to the global crisis of deforestation driven by overuse, Japan faces the unique challenge of deforestation through underuse.

Hayashida's artistic practice focuses exclusively on Japanese cedar, the most planted tree in Japan, reflecting the biodiversity loss in the unlogged planted forests. In particular, she challenges herself as a photography-based artist to confront the current situation where the planted forests are not fully utilised, by developing and printing images with developers extracted from Japanese cedar.

The project attempts to highlight the unintended consequences of human intervention in nature, using planted forests in Japan as a case study. Furthermore, it aims to provide an opportunity to reflect on how global trends and local realities intersect, where tree planting is considered an explicit global good.