Shirin Adhami
 
Jizo Garden

2019
Concrete, glass, marble

Shirin Adhami is an artist, educator and writer born in Stockholm Sweden whose work is primarily photography and performance art.  
An interest in history and pluralistic identity informs much of this work. 
 
 
Jizo Gardens are often found in the Japanese countryside on well traveled roads, adorned small animistic child bodhissatvas called Jizos who give travelers safe passage and luck.  These same Jizo sculptures are used for healing for another kind of passage, the short-lived pregnancy which ended in miscarraige or termination.  This garden is a place for contemplation, ceremony and healing for a commonly shared women's physical and mental health issue society doesn't acknowledge openly except in divisive politics. The Jizo garden at the Wedding Cake House is a reference to lore that the basement here was once used for illicit female health procedures. The Jizo Garden also provides travelers and guests of the Wedding Cake House safe passage and luck.