Hirona Matsuda

Practice & background

Hirona Matsuda is an Irish-Japanese artist working in Charleston, South Carolina. Raised in Charlotte, she attended the College of Charleston and established her practice there. Her work ranges from miniature found-object assemblages to installations involving sound, light and movement.

Salvaged objects become miniature spaces with narrative possibilities. The Gibbes Museum describes her attention to light, shadow and composition as a means of recalling how a place feels, alongside its physical appearance.

In Who Art You, she recalls studying music, anthropology and biology while initially making art for enjoyment. Financial limits led her to found materials, which became indispensable. Asked what she would save, she thinks of her sister’s artwork, locating value in a relationship rather than ownership alone.

Looking at the work

Found materials, shifts in scale and light create assembled spaces that evoke memory, nature and habitation.