Yukinori Maeda “Splashed-Ink Chiri Ryugu Landscape”
I visited Taka Ishii Gallery to see Yukinori Maeda’s solo exhibition “Splashed-Ink Chiri Ryugu Landscape.”
The exhibition is an attempt to bring forth a new “landscape of waves” through the medium of water. Inside the hushed gallery, there was a taut, breath-holding tension, as if looking at a perfectly still surface of water.
The “Ryugu” (Dragon Palace) in the title of this exhibition refers to the imaginary palace where the dragon deity is said to dwell. It is often said to lie deep inside a rock cave, at the bottom of the sea, or beyond the horizon of the ocean.
According to the “Kojiki,” “the palace built like fish scales — that is the palace of the sea god Watatsumi,” while in “The Tale of the Heike” (Book 11, “The Late Emperor’s Drowning”) it is described as a realm to which the dead depart.
The satoyama in northern Kyoto where the artist now lives is said to have been settled in ancient times by people who crossed over from Baekje on the Asian continent, and along the 35th parallel north extending from Baekje there is a tradition of Ryugu legends. Considering the dragon from a different perspective, Maeda holds that it is a spirit of the Jomon period, sealed away in antiquity and now being released. Sensing that the thatched hermit’s dwelling and studio in the depths of the mountain valley behind his village lies somewhere between this world and the next, Maeda named that place “Ryugu.”
For this solo exhibition, Maeda presents installation works using water from that “Ryugu” and its mountain village, stone flecked with quartz, thatch from the roof, and ashes from the hearth.
What a luxury it is to be able to see installation work like this in a quiet gallery. I left the venue feeling as though my mind had been purified.
