Omoide- 25 July-12 August 2017 Orexart
ARTIST STATEMENT
“I knew that if that first line would come, the rest would pour itself onto the page, but I could never make it happen. Everything was too sharp and clear, so that I could never tell where to start – the way a map that shows too much can sometimes be useless.”
From Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
Omoide is a body of work with their beginnings in Japan.
I have visited this country 3 times in the last 4 years and each time I gain small insights into its complexities: it’s colours, texture, traditions and landscapes. The visit to Naoshima Art island in 2015 remains firmly embedded in my thoughts, but now the memories sit deeper and as I search to recall them, they become fragmented and stretched. I am left with the sinews, the fibres that knit together to form something deeper in response to these experiences. The power to evoke, rather than to state directly is at the heart of my abstraction.
Omoide are memories.
There are particular sites that remain significant influences. They have had a lasting affect: the crucifical-light from the stone chamber on Naoshima and the Omikuji, simple paper blessings tied together to embody a visual spectacle. These are etched in my mind. Others memories have faded, become less tangible, leaving a haze, clouds drifting by.
The tondo marks a conscious choice in which to house these memories.
The circle is an eye, a view into the mind. It can symbolize emptiness or fullness, presence or absence. In Japanese calligraphy the imperfect Enso symbolism refers to the beginning and end of all things, the circle of life and the connectedness of existence.
Kathy Barber.