Typhoon Queens

The Typhoon Queens are an ecological artist collective formed in 2019 during a typhoon in Osaka, Japan, with members from Japan, Korea, Saudi Arabia, and the United States. Our work is part exhibition, part experiential story. Combining physical works, stories, sound, moving image, and performance, … Continue readingTyphoon Queens

City as Nature Festival

In 2019, I directed an international arts festival featuring interactive, place-based art, workshops, concerts, walks, talks, and storytelling events. Taking place at multiple locations in Osaka’s “Kitakagaya Creative Village,” the City as Nature Festival aimed at cultivating our awareness of urban environmental landscapes. At the … Continue readingCity as Nature Festival

Wisdom From the Field

This exhibition series features poetic verse and philosophical concepts collected over the course of five years of field research and study on natural farming, conducted in Japan, Korea, Scotland, and the United States. Although regarded positively by environmental experts, the practice of natural farming is … Continue readingWisdom From the Field

The Branch Studio

The Branch is a small studio and alternative gallery space built by Patrick and his wife Suhee. Nestled in a small alley in the Kitakagaya neighborhood of Osaka, Japan, The Branch hosts seasonal events and exhibitions featuring locals and visitors from abroad, exploring the nature … Continue readingThe Branch Studio

Forest is the Artist

In October 2017, Ten blank canvases were placed in Gomsil Forest, a remote forest in the mountains of South Korea. The forest was respectfully asked to spend a year making artworks on the canvases. Out of the ten original canvases, the forest allowed us to … Continue readingForest is the Artist

One Minute Meditations

Poetry, in the voice of humans and in nature, interact in a series of films that moves both visually and musically as a progression, a subtle story of interconnected scenes. One Minute Meditations comprises moving-image scenes, sound, and instrumental music, filmed primarily during several years of life … Continue readingOne Minute Meditations

The Branch, Osaka

We revitalized an old building and empty urban lot, turning them into an ecological art and media lab in Osaka, Japan. In the space, we host community workshops and exhibitions aimed at re-connecting more us more deeply to our environment and the world we live in.

Nightlight

Medium: photographyLocations: InternationalYears: 2007 — Current This ongoing series explores the streets of major cities throughout the world in the early hours of the morning. The photographs — partially a result of insomnia-driven wanderings, partially of an obsession with pure structure of urban settings — offer … Continue readingNightlight

SocieCity

Launched in 2011 by Patrick M. Lydon and Suhee Kanag, SocieCity is an international collective of artists, writers, and other professionals who are working to build long-term social and ecological well-being by inspiring empathic relationships between people and the environment.

Osakako Nature Mandala

Approximately 7,000 leaves make up this temporary installation, created over the course of four weeks during an ‘open to the public’ build process where visitors could engage in the process. Each leaf was picked by the artist, one-by-one from the urban port-side neighborhood where the … Continue readingOsakako Nature Mandala

Farmscapes

The farms in this image series look more like wild fields than food growing operations. This is a big part of why these farms are such a powerful solution for a host of ecological issues, including climate change, soil loss, resource depletion, pollution, and the … Continue readingFarmscapes

Green

Medium: light painting, soundYear: 2010 – currentLocation: international Green is an image and sound study of plant life in urban spaces around the world. Part photography, part performance, part soundscape, the works are printed on a handmade Japanese ‘washi’ paper, and exhibited along with soundscapes based on the … Continue readingGreen

Two Islands

Medium: two channel film with soundLocations: Japan, ScotlandYears: 2013 Two Islands is a two-channel film and sound installation; a study and dialogue between two small island communities, one in Scotland’s Outer Hebrides, and one in Japan’s Seto Inland Sea. Trailer During the Summer of 2013, myself and … Continue readingTwo Islands

Carbon Symphony

Medium: sound and video installation Location: Center for Carbon Innovation, Edinburgh, UK Year: 2014 This collaborative multimedia installation takes per-capita carbon emissions statistics for 200 of the world’s countries, and maps them with light and multi-channel soundscape to our most personal form of carbon emission, the human … Continue readingCarbon Symphony

Free Food Kit

Medium: seeds, washi paper, glass jar, spoonLocations: Yamaguchi, Japan; Edinburgh, UKYear: 2013 – current An interactive installation created for the Eco Art Village Project with Suhee Kang. Free Food Kit considers the re-connection of people with their source — and cost — of food. The Free Food Kit … Continue readingFree Food Kit

[HUMAN:NATURE]

Medium: film, interactive media, social practiceLocation: Setouchi International Triennale / Megijima, JapanYear: 2013 In the Summer of 2013, I had the opportunity to lead an amazing team — Suhee Kang, Johann Barbie, Song E Lee — along with nearly fifty Japanese volunteers in a project combining art, … Continue reading[HUMAN:NATURE]

Green

Green is a painterly image and sound experiment and a ‘feeling’ study of plant life in urban spaces around the world. The pieces are printed on a special Japanese ‘washi’ paper which is handmade from plant fibers, and include digitally linked soundscapes.

Harvest

Medium: two channel videoLocations: Edinburgh, UK; Yamaguchi, Japan; Nagoya, JapanYear: 2012 A video-based work exploring the concept of ‘harvest’ within rural-agrarian and urban-consumer society. Harvest  depicts a local consumer procuring harvest from a local supermarket (right), and a farmer hand-harvesting the same rice in the country of origin … Continue readingHarvest