Junko Hirano

Hirano was born in Japan but frequently lived abroad before indefinitely moving back to  to her native country in 2000. This background has formed her and her creative work; she was aware that she was an outsider, but she felt a sense of pride of being Japanese in her heart. 

Hirano expresses the central theme of 'memory' by switching between digital techniques and traditional Japanese techniques such as using washi, ink, gofun (powdered calcium carbonate), mineral pigments, printmaking, foil, and urauchi (lining). She considers memories "as images that appear and disappear at certain times and accumulate in different forms. They are being recalled from time to time. They fade away like the overlapping of thin washi. And as time goes by, they are being overwritten. Depending on this recurring process, sometimes they may become very different from the truth."