Ikebana

Yumi Sakugawa

In Yumi Sakugawa's black and white comic zine, Cassie, an undergraduate art school student presents her performance-based thesis titled, "Ikebana". Cassie takes the performance outside of her art classroom walls and onto the school's campus, surrounding neighborhood, and beach. After the class abandons Cassie to return to their classroom, Cassie is harassed by her mom and male catcallers. She is saved by a lingering classmate of hers who eventually follows Cassie into the depths of the ocean. They arise out of the water together, becoming a flower floating on top of the waves, a gesture to the title which translates from Japanese to "live flower".