2001 Light on Water

Myles Meehan Gallery, Darlington Arts Centre, Darlington (Japan 2001 Event)

Although I have lived in the UK for over 20 years, the influence of Japanese culture is still strongly rooted in my way of thinking. In the Japanese tradition, we see nature in a specific way; - as a spiritual symbol or a representation of a spirit or God. Water and light in particular have a spiritual nature for the Japanese, and we regard both these elements as sacred; thus I decided to work on images based on these elements.

Today, people’s lives are filled with noise and distractions and we do not realize that in the pursuit of materialistic things we will surely fail to find spiritual satisfaction. I have collected images related to light and water both in Japan and England, as both countries have been equally important and influential on my outlook. With this in mind, I have edited two video tapes: the first presents images of Japan, while the other dwells upon images of England.

The fact that the light in England is sharper and stronger than in Japan means, of course, that on the video images, English images appear stronger and more colourful, in comparison with the Japanese images, which are extremely subtle in colour and much calmer in mood. I have also reflected the fact that being away from my country for so many years has rendered my visual memories of Japan somewhat vague (albeit with some exceptions). On the contrary, my visual impressions of England, living here as I do, - are very clear and vivid. At the same time, the video images are the ones that I felt to be beautiful or that moved me on a spiritual level.

The paper sculpture represents the movement of a river or water, and moving images from Japan and England are projected onto it. Like the water in a river, these two sets of images flow into each other, eventually to be led to the sea, and I hope that is the point where I am standing now.