MIDUKAGE – Double Reflection
Apr. 19 -May 11
Planning : Ryohei KAN (artist /SLAP general director)
Cooperation: iti SETOUCHI, Setouchi L-Art Project (SLAP)
Venue: iti SETOUCHI
photo（1st-13th) : Kensuke HASHIMOTO
For Kawamoto, who was born and raised in Hiroshima Prefecture, which faces the Seto Inland Sea and is rich in water sources, water has been a familiar and interesting subject since childhood. Kawamoto, who majored in crafts and studied dyeing at Hiroshima City University’s Faculty of Art, experimented with materials and created a unique style of expression using foam binder to depict ripples on the surface of water.
In her “Reflection” series, which he has been producing since 2023, She has focused on two phenomena brought about by water. One is the phenomenon in which the landscape is reflected on the surface of water, and the other is the phenomenon in which the reflected light from the water shines back on walls, etc. Optically, these are explained by the law of light reflection, and both are generally referred to as “water reflections.”
However, the images that appear to our eyes are very different: one is the surrounding scenery reflected in the water surface, and the other is the expression of the water surface reflected in the surrounding scenery. These phenomena, in which the water surface and the surrounding landscape interact with each other, serve as a gateway for Kawamoto to think about the existence of light and the nature of perception.
“MIDUKAGE,” which is indicated in the title of this exhibition, is an archaic word that encompasses the two reflections brought about by the water surface mentioned above. So it implies double “reflection” as a word.
In Japanese, “KAGE( is shadow in English)” has ambiguous connotations; while it represents light itself, it also means the appearance and form of things, or virtual images as images in paintings, photographs, and videos. Kawamoto’s perspective, which looks at the boundary between reality and fiction in the changing world through the light of “water” and paints the world as a “KAGE”, can be said to be based on a worldview that has been cultivated since ancient times in the Japanese cultural sphere.
In addition to works using foam binders, this exhibition will also feature new works that utilize the dynamic texture of cloth to express the fluctuations of light. This will be a venue to present Kawamoto’s new approach to exploring creativity across the two fields of crafts and painting.