Characters who disappear
Wimp expresses distorted forms and fully covered "nameless characters" through a variety of techniques, including acrylic painting, three-dimensional sculpture, and video.
The concept is that the essence of the phenomenon emerges as the outline becomes fuzzy and the substance blurs. For example, in the work "PACKING SERIES," inspired by playground equipment wrapped in a blue tarp, a figure wrapped in a blue tarp was 3D scanned. , and then turned into CG data. This can be seen in the way that the character's presence is heightened by obscuring information.
Starting from this awareness, wimp's consistent themes are "ghosts" and "labyrinths." They have focused on fables passed down among the people without a known author. Although the true meaning of the story is protected in the process of being passed down orally, the characters change depending on the land and climate. This discrepancy is like a ghost, and the keyword for labyrinth appears in the story and the wanderings of the people who hear it.
A sense of incongruity lurking in everyday life like a ghost
Even in everyday life, our consciousness can fluctuate and we can feel as if we are lost in a labyrinth. wimp experienced this when we came across the torii gate of Heian Shrine when we visited Kyoto. This inspired the idea for this exhibition, "Vertigo." It expresses the misalignment felt when the body malfunctions and the strangeness and discomfort that lurk in everyday life.
"Although I've known it for a long time and it's a part of my life, it was much bigger than I'd imagined, and the scenery was so strange it reminded me of a game map. But I was excited to know that it was really here. I was walking along the path to the optimal solution (shown by a map app), and my destination was in sight, but the sudden appearance of a gigantic torii gate in front of me shook my consciousness and senses."
These times of feeling lost, and the communion with the indescribable things I felt in the space I was standing in, were also illuminated by the strong western sun of Shiga Prefecture, where I was born and where my creative activities are now based.
"When I was living in Tokyo, it had been a long time since I had been exposed to sunlight strong enough to make me squint my eyes. I have strong memories of it being very bright outside as a child, and in photographs I appear with a frown on my face. I just thought it was too bright for the eyes of a young child, but then I realized that there weren't many tall buildings like in Tokyo, and the sunlight was shining directly on me."
Vertigo as a feeling of revival
A forgotten sensation of something experienced in the past. The way the landscape and sunlight feel changes depending on the time and place is connected to the fables that Wimp is interested in. Interacting with what remains of the land as history is a sense of resurrection, something similar to dizziness.
Starting from the idea that "when I get dizzy, I feel light-headed and fall into a strange sensation," wimp came to the conclusion that rather than trying to willfully assign meaning to everything, it is by being in a state where your mind opens up as you simply gaze at a bonfire that you can grasp the essence of things.
"Even with music, the joy of accidentally finding a treasure-like track has decreased. Nowadays, services thoroughly analyze individuals and provide them with things that suit their needs. While we accept this convenience, I wonder if it really makes us happy."
In the approximately 30 works on display in this exhibition, torii gates that appear as if they were a tripping experience, characters whose names are unclear, or characters forgotten by society, are depicted cut off and nested within the picture plane. The composition of the picture planes, which at first glance appear to be complete but are in fact broken, shakes the viewer's sense of balance and attempts to release the viewer into the unfathomableness of everyday life and outside of consciousness.
Finding the truth through confusion and waiting
He said that even when using the same subject matter, different expressions emerge when using analog painting and digital techniques, and he will be juxtaposing his 3DCG motifs with giclee prints in tandem with his paintings, aiming to create a dizzying viewing experience between the two.
The artist name wimp means "weakling." It is a declaration of my own will to change my weak self, but at the same time, I will also seek to live life by finding my limits and feeling my way around, without pushing myself too hard, and it is also a call to society.
"It's hard to live when you're forced to take the shortest route. It may take time to see things from multiple perspectives, but I think it's important to find your own way. Perhaps it's necessary to be confused in order to be guided to the right thing."
Only by walking the path can we know what it is like. Philosopher Martin Heidegger develops the idea that truth can only be reached by experiencing the process and taking the time to do so, and that waiting is a state of being open to the essence of things.
"Even if there is an answer, there are many different paths to get there. To make it easier for everyone to live in this society," Wimp creates a maze-like process, waiting to recover what is being lost in an ever-simplified world.