WORKS

"Rashomon" is a representative work that comprehensively develops spatial and temporal movement in Yoshitaka Nanjo's painting practice. During his residency in Kyoto in 2016, Nanjo was inspired by the fact that the remains of Heian-kyo, dating back approximately 800 years, still exist beneath his studio. He superimposed the appearance of symbolic ancient city structures such as the Rashomon, Suzakumon, and Daigokuden, as they once were, onto the same canvas as the modern urban landscape. In this work, the image of the dilapidated gate depicted in Akira Kurosawa's "Rashomon" is connected to the everyday scene of playground equipment in a park that now stands on the site, where historical imagination and current physical experience intersect. Painted on a scale exceeding 3 meters in width, this work presents time not as a unidirectional history, but as overlapping, tangible layers, functioning as a device that allows viewers to perceive the memory of the place. After being presented at the VOCA Exhibition 2017, it was exhibited at the Takamatsu Art Museum as part of the "Takamatsu Contemporary Art Annual vol.06" and subsequently acquired by the museum.