Tapeworms - Mayumi Kuronuma

Body Con artist Mayumi Kuronuma has an interest in parasites and tapeworms.

Alongside works which reference Shinto symbolism and betting at the races, she has been embroidering life-size tapeworms for some years. Tape-worms live inside the intestines of human beings or animals, feeding off its host organism. In Japanese they are called Sanada-mushi, so named after a famous samurai. If you have ever seen a samurai sword you will know what I am on about, but sword grips are wrapped in delicate decorated thread, which happen to resemble tapeworms. In Japan, at least, there is thus a relationship between the grips of swords and parasites. Two of Mayumi's works are shown here.