Art Court Frontier #11
5 July - 3 August 2013
Art court Gallery, Osaka, Japan
Another First Person, 2013, photopolymer gravure on paper, 76x57 cm (paper size)
Photo ©︎ Nobutada Omote
いちばんの他者
寒かった冬の日に盛った土まんじゅう。
気がつくと春、それはへこみ、傍らにある八重桜が咲いている。
彼は朽ち、桜は咲く。
Another First Person
A grave mound was built on a cold winter day.
By spring, it had already sunk, and the double cherry tree beside it was in full bloom.
He decays, and the cherry blossoms bloom.
いちばんの他者とは、わたくしである。
そのわたくしは、不在、
すなわち死をもって明らかとなる。
I am another first person.
In absence I become clear,
and that absence is death.
Doe's Voice ver.2, 2013, photopolymer gravure on paper, 76x57 cm (paper size)
Photo ©︎ Nobutada Omote
Flower
花は生命のさかりをあらわにし、わずかな死の兆候を隠す。
わたしたちが思うことは、花が美しいということ。
わたしたちは、決して自らの死を自分自身知ることはない。
Flower
The flower reveals the very peaks of life and conceals a subtle symbol of death.
We simply see flowers as beautiful.
We never truly know our mortality or ourselves.
We never truly know our mortality or ourselves.
Michel, 2013, photopolymer gravure on paper, 76x57 cm (paper size)
Photo ©︎ Nobutada Omote
みかえるまなざしは約束事である。
The eyes looking back are a promise.
Coney Doe, 2013, photopolymer gravure on paper, 76x57 cm (paper size)
Photo ©︎ Nobutada Omote
‘Michele,’ from the Missing Voices series, takes its meaning from the Japanese phrase for “looking back.”
A little girl turning her head evokes the time when she was still alive.
‘Coney Doe’ depicts an elderly woman at Coney Island—
a printed image of someone who would already have entered the grave.
Photographs always tell stories of the past.
Yet they never reveal the flow of time.
They are only layered fragments—overlapping images of what has been.
My intention was to represent time as a mass.
Through black-and-white photographs, I sought to express time in monotone,
overlapping four colours to embody its density.
Gallery view of Art Court Frontier #11, Art court Gallery, Osaka, Japan, 5th July - 3th August 2013
Photo ©︎ Nobutada Omote
Water Mummy
青く光沢のあるゲル状のものが、まるで海のようにペトリ皿を満たしている。
わたしは小さなペトリ皿のゲルを、大きいペトリ皿から取り分けた。
すでに溶けているミイラの犬のようなかたちは、まだ半分は残っている。
この作品のアイデアは、ある僧侶の話から生まれた。
納骨堂は底から骨が溶けていくので、骨を入れても入れてもいっぱいにならない―。
水は物を分解する性質を持つ。
納骨堂のように、わたしたちの記憶は深い海に沈殿する。水はわたしたちのイメージをかきうつす。
Water Mummy
This work in a petri dish resembles a sea, filled with blue, glossy polyurethane gel.
The gel in the small petri dish was taken from a larger one.
Forms, such as mummified dogs, have already begun to melt, with only half remaining.
The concept derives from a Buddhist story:
a charnel house never fills completely—
as bones are added, those at the bottom decay.
Water has the property of dissolving objects.
Our memories precipitate and settle into the depths of the sea,
like a charnel house.
Water transcribes our images.
Water mummy-N's Herat, 2013, mixed media, urethane, petri dish, 7xφ25 cm
Water mummy-N's Herat, 2013, mixed media, urethane, petri dish, 7xφ25 cm, 4xφ16 cm
Miteru, 2013, etching on paper, 122x80.5 cm (paper size)
Miteru, 2013, etching on paper, 122x80.5 cm (paper size)
Gallery view of Art Court Frontier #11, Art court Gallery, Osaka, Japan, 5th July - 3th August 2013 Photo ©︎ Nobutada Omote
