Moon RoomA place of rest, a place to relax. To linger, stop, and rest. Restore one's peace of mind. Like the Chinese character for rest which shows a person standing by tree. Like people who find shelter from the rain under the eaves (hisashi)of a building or like animals that stay in the shade to avoid strong sunlight. A protected rest. Our life is limited but, with the security provided by the physical surroundings, we let our thoughts run to the distant past, to the limitlessly expanding future, the eternal present. A shelter of time.
A large room in the shape of the crescent moon. Entering from one end, there are three golden Hisashi attached to a large, flat, white wall.
These organic forms also look like clouds, but they are objects in which time is condensed through the actions of the artist. Transformed into bronze, they take on a patina as time passes, The golden light is reflected, casting shadows. According to the artist, the Hisashi themselves are shadows. Also, these horizontal structures seem to produce a strong sense of Japanese aesthetic feeling. In the process of approaching closer and drawing back while observing them, each person comes to rest at the place where he or she feels most comfortable.
The room also contains two long, narrow benches made of Okayama granite. These benches curve gently in parallel with the walls. Each weighs about two tons. They are cut from solid stone and, if one looks carefully, divided into two separately colored parts, pink and gray. They were cut from two different masses of stone with the same two-tone color pattern, making benches which form a symmetrical pair.
People can rest there as if they were travelers. They can sit on the benches or lay on the floor made of hardened clay. Rest for mind and body. Where is this place? What time is it now? What did I come here to do?
There people may look at clouds passing over the sky, They may see whole family of clouds, father, mother, and child. They may listen to the secret talk of physical things, the Hisashi which recall living things solidified into bronze and the geometrically but gracefully curved stone benches inlaid in the space. The gestures of these objects are sublimated but rather erotic in appearance. Not only in form but in texture and color they project the beauty of shadows. Visitors may hear music played by heavenly nymphs, like that of ancient Nara. They may whisper the words "gates of heaven" as did Michelangelo when he saw Ghiberti's doors on the baptistery in Florence. They may recall the famous Screen with View of Pine Trees. Or the Chinese character for the number one like a dash. A sword made by a master swordsmith of Bizen. The Seto Inland Sea. The dry landscape gardens of Zen temples in Kyoto.,.. We find ourselves together with other lives breathing in the shadows.
At ten o'clock on the night of the most beautiful autumn moon, moonlight slides on the large flat white wall. Reflected light and shadows. In the daytime the room is filled with light filtering in from both sides. The inner court of a monastery where the monks follow their daily routine. A Zen garden with a model of Mt. Meru. A garden which swallows up the world and at the same time is protected.
The artist say, "In the past or present, human beings have not been given a true place to rest." As guests receiving the hospitality of the architectural space and the things in it, we are in a state of peace. We have had many unpleasant experiences before now. And we will again after we leave this room.... What are we doing? What have we forgotten and what have we lost? Is this rest only momentary? Or do we have everything we need here?
HISASHI
Hisashi plaster is dripped onto the edge of table, then spread out and back with a spatula to make a "thing" about twenty centimeters long. The round, gooey lump of plaster hardens in ten minutes. During that short time, everything is decided. This is the original piece. It might be called accidental sculpture. Okazaki has made many of these objects. During the past ten years they have taken on more definite form. They are placed horizontally on the wall. It may be accurate to say, as does Kunio Iwaya, "They can haunt any wall." The artist chooses among these forms, reproduces them on a larger scale as in the present work, and casts them in bronze. They are attached to the wall at about eye level, becoming works of art entitled Hisashi.
The daily movement of the hand has given discipline to these chance-operational sculptures. Touch and motion. The memory of the hand. The hand, not the eye, has knowledge. The process of making things solid. Spreading and dripping. The intervention of gravity and action. This is where life appears. Repeated hand operations create meaning.
Extract from "THREE CONVERSATIONS" Koji Takahashi
(Curator, The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo)
ROOM "MOON" HISASHI - THAT WHICH SUPPLEMENTS