Social responsibility and communication are important elements to Gaho Taniguchi - her work is created with a spirit of compassion. At Wave Hill she was immediately inspired by the relationship of the lawns and chairs to the Hudson River and the Palisades. This appears to be a place where messages can be transmitted from the lawn and Glyndor terrace to the landscape and world beyond Wave Hill. She uses materials that are gritty and utilitarian, to engage the senses and evoke the sounds and scents of plants. She heightens our awareness of nature by separating plants from how they are conventionally experienced or presented.

In Shedding: growing free from the camouflage world, the life process of regenerating tree bark, the balance of nature that sheds one layer for a stronger one, is the inspiration for a world where people quell war to form a place where love and compassion are at the core. Since World War II, camouflage has been used by the military to conceal troops and equipment by blending them into the natural surroundings. Her choice of camouflage on the back of Glyndor House is a reminder of the impossibility of concealing war.

In addition to ikebana, Taniguchi studied Japanese papermaking, hand built walls and oil painting and has also been influenced by paintings on partitions and lyrical Noh drama. Contemporary artists who interest her include Ilya Kabokov, Rebecca Horn, Anselm Keifer, Yayoi Kusama, and Wolfgang Laib. She became an ikebana artist under Kasen Yoshimura, Head Master of the Ryusei-Ha School. She has exhibited extensively in Japan and internationally, including the Trans Hudson Gallery (1996) in New York and Inside, Kassel Stoffwechsel, Germany (1997). She has also exhibited her work as an Artist-in-Residence at Texas Tech University's Landmark Gallery in Lubbock, TX (1998). She was awarded an Asian Cultural Council Grant in 1996.