The mesmerizing qualities of natural sound are at the heart of Mineko Grimmer's kinetic sculptural works. Since the early 1980s, Grimmer, who was born in Iwate Prefecture, Japan, has made sculptural objects that move and change with the forces of nature, often producing sound in the process. The process of frozen water (sometimes containing frozen pebbles) melting into a water-filled vessel has for Grimmer frequently served as an instrument, the irregular plips and plops providing a built-in sense of anticipation. Grimmer once explained to a reporter for a Japanese newspaper that "The sounds produced by machines soon come to be boring, whereas sounds produced by drops of water are irregular and are never repeated at the same interval. You don't become bored by the sounds which appear outside of man's control even if you listen to them for hours." During a trip to Giverny, France, in 1995, Grimmer discovered the great chalk deposits of the Paris basin, which form the famed white cliffs of Dover. She began working with the chalk and other natural materials from the area, including flint, slate and iron oxide-rich soils to create small bas-relief mosaics. Grimmer has continued to work with these and similar sedimentary materials to create her most recent series of drawings.