H(Om)ecoming to Cosmic ‘I’ is an ontological, metaphysical investigation of what it means to be authentic in our time. It addresses the intertwined relationship between making, healing, knowing and our being i.e., not the physical existence but rather the essence of a person. Since spiritual practice and art practice inform each other in my research, Here x Now = How is a key function in the methodology for my making. This methodology sustains my experience of ‘what is’ without limited thought or knowledge which, according to Indian thinker Jiddu Krishnamurti, has its source in the past as a product of time and thus finite. In addition to this, I explore Zen with an inquiry with open mind to discover ‘what am I?’ The research advances into analysis of our fundamental being by looking into Heidegger’s Dasein as ‘the way,’ along with Earth-based spirituality, and combines the opposites of West and East thinking on Nature, or the moments of the Divine. Inspired by Rudolf Steiner’s Calendar of the Soul (1925), and informed by practice-led research, my studio practice is divided into four parts and reflects four seasons. The research ultimately suggests reclamation of spiritual ways of knowing for restoration of wholeness and an evolving process of our consciousness.

• https://leeay-aikawa.format.com/