​Artist Statement

I have investigated the auditorium/theatre as my theme, related with the different views associated with philosophical ideas, the urban landscape as collective memory, the absence and presence, and contemporary expression of prints. I have also inquired potentialities of multiple and reproducible aspects of prints.

 

Inspired by the view from the stage playing the violin in my childhood and the philosophical thought of Maurice Merleau-Ponty: to see and to be seen, I have created a series of artworks whose theme is the auditorium. Ordinarily, we are more concerned with actors on the stage in the theatre, however, through my works I aim to show things the other way round from the performers' perspective.

 

As a metaphor for the transient nature of life, I conceive the auditorium where the audience come and go anonymously, like unknown ancestors and individuals in the past and future. Further, I have developed my ideas into the notion of anonymity, equivalency, and ambivalence as well as the presence and absence. Lately, the empty theatre might have connoted the environment of lockdown in the current situation and represented the collective memory.  However, I started this series as the expression of the invisible human body several years ago. Instead, I intend to depict a glimmer of hope in the reflected light from the stage.

 

Based on the traditional Japanese aesthetics which value dim light in darkness, I express reflected light from the stage. In addition, I research the influence and difference of aesthetics between the West and Japan since the 19th century such as Bauhaus, artists in St. Ives, associated with Modernism. I attempt to behold the culture and esthetics from various perspectives.

 

In my recent series I have engaged myself in lithography, etching, and Japanese woodcut print also photography, abstract, and sculptures to inquire what is a contemporary print.