I consider colour as a substance that works within existence. The works produced through the search to deconstruct the historicity of painting and the authority attached to it, are a pictorial space for dialogue with the universal unconscious beyond the personal unconscious.

Through the blue abstract paintings in ‘Otherwise than being’ (2017-), I have bee exploring how I can express a sense of fluctuation that works with the unconscious. In the process, I conducted a series of studies on air perspective, methods of chiaroscuro, and Mogu method of Eastern art, and while reproducing traditional Western painting techniques, I developed and explored my own technique of brushstrokes, inspired by the blotting and blurring of Suiboku (ink).

In the midst of the development of such expressive techniques and the production and presentation of works, a joint research project with the Shiseido Mirai Research Group began in 2022. The aim of this research was to discover new aesthetic and presentational expressions by collaborating a scientific approach to the application of pearlescent materials used as cosmetic ingredients and the principles of their luminescence with the knowledge of artistic expression.

The work ‘Mosho: in between sanctuary and climate’ was presented as a result of this research, and was created during a residency in Beppu City, Oita Prefecture. ‘Mosho’ means emptiness, formlessness and drifting in Chinese-derived reading. On the other hand, in native Japanese-derived reading, it can be read as ‘Mizuha’ meaning the god of water in the mythological world. I named this title as I thought it appropriate for this peculiarly multiple pictorial space, where the work changes depending on the angle from which it is viewed.

The layer in the foreground is composed of pearlescent material. The colour of the reflected light shines in various colours, depending on the properties of each pearlescent material. The first layer, which is transparent beneath the colours of the reflected light, is painted with pigments and oils. When I was searching for a way to express the delicate gradation that would maximise the soft glow of the glowing translucent pearl material, I was given the opportunity to stay in Oita. I then started to create bright blue paints inspired by the colours of the Seto Inland Sea and the blue of the expansive sky seen from the port of Beppu.

I usually mix pigments and oils, knead them together on a marble plate, and create each and every approximate colour with subtly different shades, by making them myself. The gradations created in this way and my unique blurring effect gives rise to fluctuations that look like clouds or the sea. The shimmering is amplified by overlapping pearl materials, evoking different images depending on the angle of view. The different refractive indexes of the light from the pearlescent material and the different pigments appear to the viewer's eye as a fluctuating field (a shimmering sensation).

This ontologically questioning two-dimensional work is intended to immerse the viewer experientially as he or she changes the distance and angle to the work as the light changes in the exhibition space. That immersive experience of viewing is at the same time a meditative experience, in which the viewer experiences a fluctuation of consciousness that reaffirms and forgets their sense of time and memories of their inner world. In this sense, the artwork is a medium that connects the artist and the viewer, and a device for examining together the possibilities of the human body as a sensory organ.