“Dawn in the universe” by Emiko Horimoto
An excellent work of art usually contains something hidden behind the drawing. When we look at an ancient wall painting, and a statue of Buddha made in the medieval period, we feel different kinds of God in them. We realize loneliness from “Sunflowers” by Vincent van Gogh, the misery of war in “Guernica” by Pablo Piccaso, and the basis of human existence from the sculptural works by Joseph Beuys. Such perception is made unconsciously without taking any special training.
The earth, the atmosphere, and the sun are drawn in the workpiece of “Dawn in the universe” by Emiko Horimoto. Behind them, we can see something hidden which had existed far before Gods of all ages and civilizations or the Creator of all nature made their appearance, and it still exists quite near to us. I guess it is “a prayer.”
It is “a prayer” that can be described neither by religion nor by the philosophy that supports the reason for existing of a human being. The art of “a prayer” dates back to Kagaku Murakami in recent times, to Sesshu in the modern period, and the wall paintings of Kondo in Horyuji-temple in ancient times.
To face Horimoto’s work piece descended from ancient art will give you a chance to confirm “the relationship between the outer world and yourself” (Hideki Nakamura)
Tetsuya Miyata, Researcher on the history of ideas in the Japanese modern arts
(Contemporary Japanese Art 2017)
Translated by Ryusuke NAKAMURA
