2018
南条嘉毅個展 " Wafting Time −漂う地層− "
Solo Exhibition " Wafting Time "
KYOTO ART HOSTEL kumagusuku (Kyoto)
Dirt, old furniture, lighting fixtures, audio equipment, etc.
2018
南条嘉毅個展 " Wafting Time −漂う地層− "
Solo Exhibition " Wafting Time "
KYOTO ART HOSTEL kumagusuku (Kyoto)
Dirt, old furniture, lighting fixtures, audio equipment, etc.
Wafting Time — Drifting Strata (FEEL KYOTO 2018)
Created during the artist’s stay in Kyoto, this work attempts to visualize the time accumulated in the land by superimposing the present landscape onto the image of Heian-kyo, the ancient capital that once stood there. Using local soil and ink, and drawing from photographs and historical documents, the artist creates images in which the presence of the past city—slumbering just a few meters below—emerges. Yoshitaka Nanjo depicts the landscape not merely as a visual image, but as a “stratum of time” where human activity and memory are layered, guiding the viewer into the depths of time.
About “Wafting Time — Drifting Strata”
This body of work consists of paintings and installations created by Yoshitaka Nanjo, who stayed in Kyoto in 2016 as an invited artist for FEEL KYOTO, based on his field research. During his stay, Nanjo visited the Heian-kyo Creation Museum and focused on Kyoto’s unique geological structure, in which the ruins of Heian-kyo lie just a few meters underground. While it is generally believed that it takes tens of thousands of years for two meters of strata to accumulate, in Kyoto, due to repeated disasters and urban renewal, layers of comparable thickness have formed in just 800 to 900 years. This represents a dense accumulation of time in which human activity and nature are intricately intertwined.
To visualize this “compressed time,” Nanjo created works using soil and ink collected on-site, based on photographic materials and historical research. The resulting images superimpose the current urban landscape with the structures and historical scenes of Heian-kyō that once existed there. This approach is not merely a reproduction of the landscape but an attempt to bring the memories and time accumulated in the land to the surface of the canvas. As Yuji Makino points out, it creates a visual experience that involves not only spatial movement but also temporal movement.
This exhibition features a total of 11 works, including three paintings created during his stay in Kyoto and pieces produced following further research, thereby clarifying Nanjo’s consistent themes of “place,” “memory,” and “layers of time” against the backdrop of the historic city of Kyoto. “Wafting Time — Drifting Strata” is an attempt to visualize time itself—the accumulation of human activity—through the medium of landscape.