2012
信濃川
Water and Land Art Festival 2012 / Shinano River
Machiya Gallery Satsumaya (Niigata)
Panel, cotton cloth, soil, acrylic paint, etc.
2012
信濃川
Water and Land Art Festival 2012 / Shinano River
Machiya Gallery Satsumaya (Niigata)
Panel, cotton cloth, soil, acrylic paint, etc.
The artist walked the entire 367km length of the Shinano River (including the Chikuma River) from its source to the sea, observing the river's surrounding landscapes up close. These landscapes were then transformed into paintings created using soil collected from those locations. The exhibition space is the interior of a traditional townhouse in Kosudo, a town that once flourished as a river port on the Shinano River and still retains its old townscape. The long, narrow townhouse is envisioned as a river, and as you walk from the back, across the earthen floor, past small rooms with mounds of earth in the corners and courtyard gardens, and up to the room with folding screens on the second floor, the river feels like a mysterious, tangible entity.
This work was created by actually walking the entire 367km length of the Shinano River (including the Chikuma River) from its source to its mouth, and using the landscapes and soil of the land encountered along the way. The artist observed the river up close, capturing scenes of current life, and collected soil imbued with the history and memories accumulated at each point, transforming it into paintings and installations.
The exhibition unfolds in a traditional townhouse in Kosudo, Niigata, a town that once flourished as a river port on the Shinano River. The interior of the long, narrow townhouse is likened to the flow of a river, and as visitors move from the earthen floor to the back, their eyes are guided to spatial works using earth, a courtyard, and a large folding screen painting on the second floor. The screen depicts a riverside landscape using collected earth and acrylic paints, creating a sense of time passing throughout the entire space.
In the installation, dried and sifted soil is refined to a particle size equivalent to that of pigments and lightly placed on the floor and in the space. Viewers initially do not notice its presence, but gradually they become aware of the mounds and uneven distribution of the soil, and physically perceive the presence of soil filling the space.