At THE KNOT, we value our relationships with our artists.

This is the first attempt to have such a project across all four hotels since the THE KNOT brand started. Each THE KNOT (Yokohama, Shinjuku, Sapporo, Hiroshima) was involved in the same project: to produce masks with artwork from local artists.

About artist mask of YOKOHAMA

■ Profile
Mami Sada
Birthplace: Kanagawa Prefecture
Education: Yokohama College of Art and Design
Instagram
@bjmoon_stst

■ About this Work
Title: Francis Francis
Material: Canvas, oil paints
Comments: This work depicts a fictional character named Francis Francis. He is also the main character of a novel I wrote at the same time as doing this work. This is the story of Francis, a person who no-one can hate, as told by the people close to him. I was also careful about selecting the right colours to depict his personality. This image shows just one side of him.

■ Thoughts on THE KNOT Yokohama and the Collaboration With Us
I was really pleased to have been approached about this project. I love to think that my work can used on a daily basis, as a mask. THE KNOT feels like a fashionable and calm place, and is nice to spend time in even though it is a hotel.

■アーティストプロフィール

Miya Kaneko
2017: Obtained a Ph.D. in Fine Art from the Graduate School of Fine Arts, Tama Art University
2018: ART IN THE OFFICE 2018 Award
2017: Tokyo Midtown Award 2017 Grand Prix
2017: Koganecho Area Management Center Residence Artist

□ Main Exhibitions
2020: Creative Railway Art in the Minatomirai Stations, Motomachi-Chukagai Station (Kanagawa)
2020: Koganecho Bazaar 2020 (Kanagawa)
2019: ‘Rokko Meets Art’ art walk 2019 (Hyogo)
2019: Nakanojo Biennale 2019, Kondo Park (Gunma)
2019:  Solo exhibition, Information Center – World Atlas Project in Gwangju (2019, Space Ppong, Gwangju).
And more

Kaneko san is also involved in an ongoing project to draw an invisible ‘portrait of the city’ from people’s memories.

Instagram ＠kanekomiya

■ About the Piece on the Tote
Title: Observed Undiscovered Asteroid_1 (35.441566, 139.625390)
Materials: ink on paper
Comments: The term “social distance”, which became household vocab during the various lockdowns around the world this year, has changed our daily lives in the community. At the same time that everyday conversations with friends were cut out, people started speaking to strangers. It was a social phenomenon that actually added color to society as a whole, without us realizing it at the time it started happening.

Further, with everyone being involved in web conferences and meeting online, you get to attend lectures and talks you would not otherwise get to see, as well as hear different things. I discovered that the tempo of the story or the speaker’s breathing brings a surprising amount of delicate information to light.

From these experiences, I reflected on the transformation due to COVID-19 of human-to-human communication, paying particular attention to the speaking voice. In one particular work, I exhibited in a glass-walled gallery facing a road. People who visited during the exhibition could call me and talk on the phone about places that were particularly important to them or that left a strong impression on them, and I imagined and drew a map based on that conversation. One of the drawings (which actually is part of a set) that came from one of these conversations was the one I have used on the tote.

But what is an ‘undiscovered asteroid’? The phrase started to play around in my head when I was walking alone in an unusually tranquil Yokohama during the lockdown, and I imagined how the city was changed. Without others around who would have usually been witnessing the same thing as me, I felt that the city was somehow so far away, as if it were an undiscovered asteroid that existed but could not be seen. I couldn’t share it with anyone.

Can a city be a city when if no one is looking at it? This project is an attempt to remind us of the image of our current location.

■ Thoughts on THE KNOT and the Collaboration With Us
Personally I love outings and travel, and know that hotels are really important as bases when doing so. When I was little I remember using a small stone as a kind of landmark in a place that was important to me. I hope this work acts as my stone did for me, a small memory of an important place.

You can buy them at Hotel THE KNOT Yokohama reception desk. Please ask our staff if you need.