saiho + Sayuri Hayashi Egnell
Imagery Garden
Artist statement
Our installations emerge from memory, landscape, and the subtle transitions found in nature. As Japanese women living abroad, we draw inspiration from childhood recollections of our homeland and the lingering echoes of cultural memory. In Imagery Garden, viewers enter a contemplative space designed for stillness and inward movement. Surrounded by light, sound, and natural elements, they are invited to drift between memory and presence, dream and reality, time and place. Rather than dissolving boundaries, we explore the freedom of moving across them — gently, fluidly, and without fear. In a world increasingly defined by divisions, our work offers a quiet space where borders can be crossed, returned to, and reimagined.
About us
saiho + Sayuri Hayashi Egnell
“saiho+Sayuri Hayashi Egnell” is an art unit by landscape architect based in US, saiho, and
a music composer based in Sweden, Sayuri Hayashi Egnell.
They create mostly art installations to provide experiences to evoke feelings in viewer’s deep mind
that crosses various boundaries and connects with the world.
They have presented art installation works such as “Beyond the Ocean” at an international art festival in Japan,
BIWAKO Biennale 2020, “To Mothers” at Local Love Art Festival in Oakland CA, and “Imagery Garden” at BIWAKO
Biennale 2022 in Japan. Their first solo exihibtion was held at Gallery Main in Kyoto in May 2023.
TECHNICAL INFO
Medium: Installation, mixed media, interactive Dimensions: Variable, 100–120 m², Installation time: 10min Electrical: 200--240V, 10A
Exhibitions
2022 Intel art festival BIWAKO Biennale in Japan
2024 Shanghai Contemporary Art Museum in China (solo)
2025 Intel art festival BIWAKO Biennale in Japan
Our past works
saiho + Sayuri Hayashi Egnell
Our work focuses on immersive installations using natural elements, sound, and spatial nteraction to create environments where visitors can experience shifting relationships between nature, perception, and community.
installation "Beyond the Ocean"
Time : 12min
Exhibitions
International Art Festival BIWAKO BIENNALE 2020
/ Omihachiman city and Hikone city, Japan
installation "To Mothers"
Time : 10min
FIlmed by Elisabet Gallego Rigol
Exhibitions
Local Love Summer Art Festival 2021 / Oakland California, USA
A sandy shore and a painted sunset have been installed inside the back room of an old sake brewery. Washed ashore are twelve message bottles from artists who could not cross the ocean to attend the festival. Visitors enter the room carrying a lantern, illuminate the bottles and read the handwritten notes; they may also write a message for absent artists or loved ones and place it in a small glass bottle to be carried by this makeshift tide.The setting sun beyond the painted ocean stands for places and people that are physically unreachable. Conceived during a time of travel bans and enforced separation, the work transforms distance into a shared, intimate ritual. Through light, paper, and tide, Beyond the Ocean invites encounter, memory, and quiet exchange—binding strangers and absent others by the simple act of bearing witness.
Saiho arranged 100 carnations along the shore for a quiet, ceremonial gesture of thanks at Ocean Beach, San Francisco. Projected as a moving image in the gallery, the beach scene can be accompanied by a participatory ritual: visitors are invited to place fresh carnations into a glass jar of water while watching the projection, bridging the filmed performance and the present moment.
With gratitude to Mother Earth, to all mothers everywhere, and to my mother across the ocean. A simple act of placing a flower becomes an offering—an intimate, collective tribute that spans distance and time.
To Mother Earth…
To all the mothers…
and To my mother over the ocean…
Thank you, and happy Mother’s Day.
