"Event Horizon 2012" Exhibition
M55 Art
This event has ended.
On the 11th of March, 2011, a huge tsunami, unprecedented in the history of earthquakes in Japan, struck the northern part of our nation, killing about thirty thousand people. The scars of this tragedy remain vivid in our memories. This event generated confusion in the Japanese government and bought further impoverishment to our economy. Even so, this chaotic situation inspired some people to arise and begin the hard work of rebuilding the infrastructure of Japan, while addressing the stagnant politics of our country. The antagonistic feelings of hope for the future and despair for our losses coexist in every Japanese citizen as we try to re-build our beautiful nation once again.
Looking around the world, it is clear that people of many other nations are experiencing similar circumstances now. Never ending wars, collapsing economies, exploitation and oppression by profit fueled corporations, starvation, and poverty plague millions of people everywhere. Our media warn us constantly of exploding populations, natural and man made disaster, and frightful pandemics. We read of government corruption in many parts of the world. The destruction of our earth environment weighs heavily on us all. It seems that 99% of the people on this planet are suffering, both physically and spiritually, frozen at the cross roads of their civilizations.
Our top astronomers tell us that our physical space-time universe, once sucked into the cosmic black hole, will exist no more. Scientists call that border between the planes “Event Horizon”.
Facing this existential crisis, mankind must rally all of its willpower to create a new future. As an artist, I hope to call attention to the deep feelings that of people hold inside through these tense times. I believe that the artist’s subconscious mind is a micro entity which can reveal the unconscious flow or pattern of the present as a macro entity. I channel this anxiety into my personal visual language via paint and canvas.
About My Work:
Flickering light seen through tree leaves, a forest which looks like a universe full of stars, a chair, a cloud, a seascape, a little girl, a human face and so on. Lately I have been working with my dream images as a motif for my new works, creating their images through colored dots and a ring application processes. Adding and subtracting, sometimes juxtaposing, the images’ counter-lines tend to be ambiguous and the works’ images as a whole become out of focus. I pay my best attention to obtain a subtle relationship between the parts and a whole of the image.
Having grown up in Buddhist environment, it is natural to say that I have been influenced strongly by the Buddhist view toward nature. According to Buddhism, nature is an energy field where everything, including our mind, is inseparable and mutually dependent. The border between mind and matter, unlike Cartesian dualism, is an ambiguous space. In fact they are replaceable with each other like both sides of a coin. This way of looking at nature will be seen in the Japanese traditional craftsman’s work ethic as well. The craftsman believes that he should become one with his tools while engaged in his work and believes his tools are his other self. They say that only those who have attained this state of mind can be called a maestro. This kind of view toward nature will be seen in the present day science, quantum physics, as well. For instance: we have in science terminology called “quantum entanglement”. Being proven through a number of experiments, physical events of the micro field correspond instantly, actually beyond speed of light, with those of macro field. Negating Newtonian cause and effect relations, it has proven the mutual dependence of micro and macro events. This mutual dependence will be seen in the relationship between our mind and physical matters as well. One Japanese scientist, long experimenting with the relationship between human consciousness and physical events of micro world, has succeeded in photographing a water crystal which changes its formation according to human words like “love” and “hate”. The result shows that in some way or another our conscious mind can activate physical matter in question. Our consciousness, along with unconsciousness, is literally affecting and is affected by the physical world. I believe, from this point alone, that quantum physics shares part of its ideology with that of Buddhism.
Standing somewhere between Buddhism and quantum physics, my life long theme for my works is to express the flowing mind of the universe with the essence of our age. It may be hard to attain, for it is like the action of man who is trying to create a picture on water while standing in the flowing river.
Shiro Sasaki. 2012
Media
Schedule
from March 14, 2012 to March 31, 2012
Opening Reception on 2012-03-15 from 18:00 to 20:00