Surface Tension

Masaya Hashimoto, Sachiko Kazama, Kumi Machida and Hidenori Yamaguchi

24 September – 7 November 2015

White Rainbow is pleased to present Surface Tension, with Masaya Hashimoto, Sachiko Kazama, Kumi Machida and Hidenori Yamaguchi. This exhibition draws together exquisitely skillful art works which spring from the context of traditional technique, yet offer perspectives on life in Japan today. As approaches to technology, materials and information have developed over centuries, the question remains for artists how the parameters of their genre can provide a window onto the contemporary.

Kumi Machida has become internationally recognised for her depictions of haunting biomorphic humans awakening from surreal dream-like states. She combines a classical education in the Japanese tradition of Nihonga painting with contemporary motifs to form her own unique style. Sachiko Kazama’s woodcuts similarly remain true to the origins of the medium, although the states of hyper-reality in her prints satirise contemporary society. Each work is created as a unique print, despite the use of a medium intended to generate multiple copies.

At first glance, Hidenori Yamaguchi’s ink wash paintings appear to be photographs. His depictions of contemporary scenery in meticulous detail however, are in fact painted with a very fine brush and ink on silk and paper. This astonishing level of detail can also be seen in the work of self-taught sculptor Masaya Hashimoto, who lives and works in a Buddhist temple. He uses the bones and antlers of deer to make delicate sculptural works that question the notion of perpetuity and rebirth.

 

 

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