Portrait Series
I paint portraits of landscapes which make deep impression on me. The reason why I paint “portraits of landscapes”, and not “landscapes”, is that I want to paint human-like expressions of nature when nature meets the human desire.
I was born in Japan and spent my childhood in East Africa where my basic identity built up. The beauty of the great nature in Africa impressed me, but at the same time, it told me how cruel the wild is. The coexistence of cruelty, severity, and gentleness in nature is represented in children’s face which have uncertain borders of “good” and “bad”.
The bubbles are shown as a symbols of growth. Through thousands of years of their history, human beings pray and make wishes to nature, which is beyond human intellect. Their desire increases and never stops growing. To form counterparts of the growing human desire, multiplications in natural phenomena such as cell divisions are reflected as bubbles in the paintings.
People have different cultural backgrounds, senses of values, and thoughts. Although they have wisdom to understand each other, humankind still have disputes and discrimination between countries and even inside their country. But basic wishes, like living safely with love, is our common ground for us. I hope these human-like expressions of nature show the way to re-recognize that we all have common wishes.
幾千年の歴史の中で、人々は自然に畏敬の念を抱きながら祈りを捧げてきました。祈りはささやかな幸せを願う気持ちを、あるいはとめどない欲望をのせて増殖し続けています。その祈りに対峙した時、自然はどのような表情を見せるのか、心に留まった風景や詩歌の中に望郷の念を重ねながら肖像として描いていまうす。
幼少を過ごしたアフリカで、私は暖かくも厳しい圧倒的な自然と共にありました。残酷さと優しさの混在する自然の表情を、幼い子供のもつ「善」と「悪」の境界線の危うさに、とどまることを知らない増殖を分裂増殖の象徴として円に投影しています。
人類の歴史は戦争の歴史だといいます。異なる文化、価値観、思想を持ちながらも互いに分かり合う方法を知っているのに、我々は未だ争いと差別の歴史の中にいます。とどまることのない欲望の根底に、人々が普遍的に抱いてきたものを共有できた時その歴史は終焉に向かうかもしれません。描かれた肖像の眼差しが、それを見つける道しるべになることを願っています。