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Cloth & Culture NOW
the artists - Jun Mitsuhashi, Japan
Japanese culture naturally forms the foundation
of all my works and this is an extremely important factor. Not
in a particularly religious or spiritual way, but in rather ordinary,
every day things or experiences that have accumulated over the
course of my life. Things that I have experienced for myself
such as “food” “home” “seasons” etc.,
and perhaps a sense of aesthetics such as one finds in ceremonies
and manners/rules of etiquette.
From these things the keywords such as “temporal space and
time” “ambience and physical place” “comparison” “moon
and calmness” keep on popping up. I am fascinated by Japanese
culture; the pleasure of subtlety and exaggeration, harmony and
contrast, light and shade, can be discovered in so many places.
Discovery, admiration, enjoyment – these form the cornerstone
of my work. The essence of at is to open up people’s hearts
and minds and I believe that it should give those around positive
power, not negative. I show a world which is in opposition to one
of anxiety, fear and unhappiness, I believe the role of art and
its value of art lies in making people feel.
Incorporated into my works are breakable or intransient items
and there is pleasure in discovering a tiny bit of light within
them; not the bright light of the sun beaming down, but in the
same way that seeing something in the pale moonlight moves your
spirit. My works are not brightly coloured, they do not release
an overwhelming sense of being, but quietly and inconspicuously,
the installations move you, showing that there is a world among
the small and trivial; it is like peeping through a window.
I cannot help but be influenced by cultures outside Japan as I
am surrounded by such information. It is difficult to explain exactly
how, but in the surface colour and shape, the way I use materials
etc. But, in spite of this, as I said earlier, I believe my works
reflect my own perception of Japanese culture. But that is not
to say that the influence of other cultures is a bad thing.
I apologise for not being able to express this effectively.
JAPAN
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