Situation: looks at himself in the mirror, but does not recognize the reflection. Or you don’t really know a word or a name for it. Blob? A flicker of light? What could my image even be like? At least it’s always changing.
In my exhibition called Identity, the outlines of some kind of personal portrait overlap, the diary-like entries of small drawings, which are often variations of different shapes, and color, just color. I am interested in shapes, colors and variation, as well as the points of contact between the general (e.g. geometry) and the personal (e.g. feeling or memory) and the interweaving.
The background of the exhibition is also influenced by considerations related to my own stage of life. I turn 60 this spring. I heard from a friend that according to traditional Japanese thought, a person is reborn on their 60th birthday ( Kanreki ). Then he has completed one round and a new one begins – this is related to the local view of the mutual cycle between the signs of the zodiac and the five basic elements of nature. Even if I don’t literally agree with this idea, I recognize something special about this age.
There are mainly drawings on display. Or maybe the works are some kind of drawing-paintings. I have realized them with water-soluble oil pastels, so that the initial stage of the work has often been drawing, dry technique, and as the work progresses, water and the painterly spreading of the color have come along. The whole also includes some collages, as well as artefacts that utilize, for example, the surplus of the materials I use in my work.
Although the exhibition playfully has a few hints of a festive exhibition, it is also the antithesis of such, and turns more in the direction of the small than the great. All the works in the exhibition were created during the most recent cycle.
