About the artist:
aricoco (Ari Tabei), born and raised in Tokyo, Japan, is an interdisciplinary artist, currently living and working in Brooklyn, NY. She received her MFA from the University of Connecticut in sculpture and video performance art in May 2007. She was awarded the A.I.R. Gallery Fellowship for 2008-2009. She has participated in several artists in residencies including chashama, Vermont Studio Center, LMCC's Swing Space, Smack Mellon Artist Studio Program, Sculpture Space, Blue Sky Project, Triangle Workshop, and the Artist Alliance Inc’s Rotating Studio Program.
She makes garments and bags to create nests that are like her own home. These function as cocoons for her, to heal and nourish herself so that she regains strength to survive when she emerges from them. When she was a child, she started to stage brief, runaway-from-home performances. She usually packed her favorite toys in her special bag and escaped to just outside the house. The performances became her own ritualistic play and her bag was her portable home she could carry around with her. She still carries this restless temperament to run away from home and search for her own place to be. Living with a phobia against nature, she performs her ritualistic play to expose her struggle and desperate hope to get through today.
www.aricoco.com
