Description
In Suzuri (Ink Stone) Japanese characters made of cast paper are placed in a cast paper bowl full of black calligraphy ink. The letters and the bowl are lined with bees wax making them somewhat impermeable to the ink. The characters spell out a poem written by the artist (see below).
In a performance, the artist places the characters of the poem, in order, on the surface of the ink, and then they begin to float around at random. The work remains in the gallery and transforms over time, as the ink evaporates and slowly penetrates the white of the paper.
Suzuri (Ink Stone) was made twice, the first time for the exhibition Paper Words 紙のことば at Komagome Contemporary Art Space, Tokyo in the spring of 2014 and then remade for L’ombre et la forme, presented at the Maison des arts de Laval, Québec in the fall of 2014.
The poem (translations by Masashi Ogura and Karen Trask):
ありすぎる欲望，ありすぎる空所
ある人の影 － 別の人の満足
カオス，かつて，なにもないものを示す言葉があった
Le trop plein désire le trop vide
L’ombre de l’un – la plénitude de l’autre
Le chaos, jadis un mot pour désigner le néant
The too full desires the too empty
The shadow of one: the fullness of the other
Chaos, once another word for nothingness
Statement
Suzuri (Ink Stone) references the ancient art of Japanese calligraphy, while drawing attention to the importance of paper by playing with the idea of the support and the characters. I inverse the roles of ink and paper, so that the paper becomes the characters floating in the ink.