I thought over the word, “picturesque,” which was used in early 19C when photograph was born and used as the samples for paintings; how can I make this word reborn? I tried many kinds of moquettes and reached this work, “Oneness“, I didn’t mention this on my exhibition, but here to say that I took pictures with referencing paintings around middle 17C in Europe, because in this era suddenly (or we might be able to say it was supposed to be) painters’d started drawing their own lives, not the icons. Before that most of paintings were about icons or stories of bibles. But there, different. I believe these paintings should be the most “picturesque.” So these my own works were done after those.
Also this shift topics from icons to their lives can be in concert with my theme; transforming of ideology and politics, from socialism to capitalism in 1989. I hanged this below text on my exhibition;
<Imagine the world is made from all white pieces of jigsaws. Actually those pieces colored in gradation are standing without any orders; random, each one has the same face, but on standing next to others, we can’t help accept they’re different.
I walked around the countries, which once they’d adopted Socialism and have this fact as their history.
What I saw there were ordinary scenes. Naturally they enjoyed shopping like us, and anywhere of their lives I could see the used-to-see scenes. Scenery as if in Japan we can’t help feeling it’s too natural.
What is different is only faces and accents of them. The breath of their culture there. These differences might be just felt those we can’t tell. I felt their lives were so beautiful, in which people now run with the each history and culture.>(You can also read this text here; http://yamaichinaosuke.info/Oneness_script.html)
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「ピクチャレスク」という、19世紀初頭に写真が作られ、絵画のサンプルとして使われていた頃の言葉について何度も考えていた。どうしたらこの言葉に命を再び吹き込めるんだろう、と。
いろんな試作を作った結果が今回の展示、「Oneness」だった。このことについては展示では触れていなかったけれど、ここで述べるなら、17世紀中葉の西洋絵画の構図を踏襲することを行っていた。この時期、突然(もしくはなるべくして)画家達はイコンから民衆の生活を描き出している。その絵画こそ「ピクチャレスク」な表現なのでは、と考え、引用を試みた。
同時に、このイコンから民衆への変遷は、社会主義から民主主義への移行と重ねることもできるんじゃないか、と考えもした。そして、以下の文章を掲げた。
そこで見たものは、当たり前の風景。人びとはぼくたちと同じようにショッピングを楽しみ、まるで日本のような風景が広がっている。
違うのは代われない顔と、言葉遣い。そこにある文化の気配。それらは「なんとなく違うように思える」だけ。その文化を背負い生きる人びとの姿が美しいとさえ思った。>