my vision

Statement

Studying how the brain works and the philosophy of ‘mind and body’ are very interesting to me. Of course, it is not my aim to explain my works through neurology or philosophical words. I am eager to express our society and contemporary human beingness. My thinking (both approval and disapproval) regarding insights in various fields evokes the first images I have when creating a work of art.

On the other hand, in the realm of art it is possible to express things that are beyond words, especially in a visual or a haptic way, I believe. That is why I respect the ineffable sensitivity that exists in the back of my thinking in the creation process. It may be my subjective consciousness of experiences or proto-conscious. Perhaps such an approach is a sign that the influence of an ancient Japanese animistic worldview remains in my inner depth.

My works are made through such a sense of appreciation that rationality and irrationality both exist in conditions of chaos. I believe that if artists could express the essence of human beings who live now synchronously, their works could resonate with the people, especially with their wishes, experiences and imagination.

On my technique

I don’t consider my work foremost to be lithographs because although I incorporate some aspects of lithographic technique, I synthesize these with “chance” and digital editing procedures.

First of all I scan some figures whose forms I have consciously chosen in my drawings. Then I separately scan figures whose forms have been determined by chance, such as sumi ink stains. By means of digital editing I layer the two scans. In such a way I aim for the interplay between my conscious artistic choices and the role of chance. This layered result is printed on paper by means of archival ink. Finally I overprint this with the offset lithography containing the ‘consciously-chosen figures’. I sometimes add several powdered mineral pigments to the ink.

The technique of printmaking for me is thus a sort of “technique which includes another aspect of my being that is expressed through chance results.” Images that I have at the beginning of the creation process are, in the process of creation itself, shaken up by subsequent chance images. This serves as an important means to create a circuit whereby new images may emerge.