Yamauchi Terue is an artist based in Japan. In 2010, during her existential journey of searching for and exploring the origin of her life, she came across an old photo of a naked Ama (sea women) diver. The photo deeply inspires her to this day as she continues to explore human nature and considers a world view nurtured by the sea. In 2013, she graduated from a Haenyeo school on Jeju Island, Korea where she learned traditional free diving fishery and began shooting underwater. Since 2015, she has carried out research projects in the Philippines and extended her field of study to maritime Asia. Her first documentary film Crossing Tides was awarded Honorable Mention for a feature-length film at the Tokyo Documentary Film Festival 2019.
In the summer of 2020, Yamauchi was moved by an essay written by Jeon Gisun/Matsuda Motoyoshi entitled ‘What Country Am I From?’, which prompted her to connect with the author and began their discussions of history, identity, and ingrained mindsets, a connection which continues to this day. As a cultural interpreter, Jeon/Motoyoshi took part in Yamauchi’s most recent work, in which she reflected upon her present reality by recounting the history of her family who migrated to Busan as Japanese settlers in colonial Korea under the Japanese rule. This project will be their first full scale collaboration.