Kokeshi こけしStudies brings together childhood memory, Japanese heritage, and material discovery. Drawn to the simple forms and layered symbolism of kokeshi dolls during my travels in Japan, I paired these images with walnut ink—a medium rooted in my upbringing in a walnut-farming family.
Associated with mountain spirits, protection, resilience, and wishes for children, kokeshi embody the spirit of wood and the natural world. These studies reflect an intimate dialogue between ancestry, material, and gesture—where simplicity carries meaning, and form holds memory.
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Helen Oji (b. Sacramento, CA) interweaves her Japanese heritage with American and European visual traditions, exploring gesture, paint, color, and form. She has exhibited extensively in New York City, across the United States, and in Europe.
In 1990, she was one of thirteen founding members of GODZILLA: Asian American Art Network. The Smithsonian American Art Museum has recently acquired four of her prints, and the Smithsonian Institution libraries and Archives hold her art papers, documenting more than fifty years of artistic practice. Oji’s work is held in major public collections, including the Museum of Modern Art, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, the Brooklyn Museum, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Minneapolis Institute of Art, the High Museum of Art, and the Library of Congress. Her work has been discussed in Artforum, Art in America, The New York Times, Hyperallergic, and other publications. She lives and works in New York City.
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This zine was inspired by a notebook of originals on handmade paper, with encouragement from Helen’s daughter, Yoko O.K.!
Kokeshi こけしStudies brings together childhood memory, Japanese heritage, and material discovery. Drawn to the simple forms and layered symbolism of kokeshi dolls during my travels in Japan, I paired these images with walnut ink—a medium rooted in my upbringing in a walnut-farming family.
Associated with mountain spirits, protection, resilience, and wishes for children, kokeshi embody the spirit of wood and the natural world. These studies reflect an intimate dialogue between ancestry, material, and gesture—where simplicity carries meaning, and form holds memory.
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Helen Oji (b. Sacramento, CA) interweaves her Japanese heritage with American and European visual traditions, exploring gesture, paint, color, and form. She has exhibited extensively in New York City, across the United States, and in Europe.
In 1990, she was one of thirteen founding members of GODZILLA: Asian American Art Network. The Smithsonian American Art Museum has recently acquired four of her prints, and the Smithsonian Institution libraries and Archives hold her art papers, documenting more than fifty years of artistic practice. Oji’s work is held in major public collections, including the Museum of Modern Art, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, the Brooklyn Museum, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Minneapolis Institute of Art, the High Museum of Art, and the Library of Congress. Her work has been discussed in Artforum, Art in America, The New York Times, Hyperallergic, and other publications. She lives and works in New York City.
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This zine was inspired by a notebook of originals on handmade paper, with encouragement from Helen’s daughter, Yoko O.K.!
