Miki MOCHIZUKA: Few 持塚三樹《Few》
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Miki MOCHIZUKA: Few
14 September – 12 October 2024 Gallery EXIT is happy to present ‘Few’ by Miki Mochizuka, featuring a series of floral paintings in different degrees of illumination. ‘Few (feu)’ is a French word that carries connotations of fire or lighting. The transformed, hazy memories and the whereabouts of time in Mochizuka’s artworks are derived from daily life, where one can visually perceive and remember through the presence of daylight and electric light. These visual memories are formed and seen through the light within the imagery. The fire in the darkness would illuminate and reveal the unseen. Mochizuka paints from memory and imagination. A starting point or image is selected and abstracted for each new body of work. Moving away from traditional subject matters such as flowers, forests and foliage, and towards integrating them in an abstract manner, he started to use shaped canvases around 2016. His recent series of oil paintings with dark backgrounds and bursts of light colours integrates ancient lacquer techniques using multiple layers of paint to obtain deep, rich and smooth surfaces. As he rediscovers and discloses the underlying colour layers with his finger tips, the abstraction of floral motifs bursts from the canvas. Surrounded by the varnished surface, the imaginary nature from another world of psychedelic colours comes to mind and invites the viewers into other spaces full of vim and vigour. The act of manually rediscovering the unconsciously painted areas adds to the fascination and tantalising qualities of these daunting works. All these flowers are painted from the artist’s memories. The memories one can obtain from daily experiences are not clear, but fragmental and hazy—the residual images of partial colours, forms, scents, sounds, tastes, and touch. The memories that remain from one’s experiences gradually transform and change into a convenient truth for oneself, as they become intertwined with one’s own imagination, ideas, and preferences. The recurring floral imagery in the paintings represents a medial position, where flowers can exist in both positive and negative scenes, such as life and death, sorrow and joy, destruction and regeneration. ‘I juxtapose the abstraction and concretisation of images. In my recent paintings, I have been experimenting with a technique where I use my bare hands instead of brushes to control and unevenly shift the paint. In addition to the act of painting, I form the colours through the material shift. The paint's blurring and peeling that are often seen in my works are intentionally depicted as a symbol of the ambiguous memories, referencing the cloud scenes in ancient Japanese emaki (picture scrolls) that signify a change of place or an omen. The crowded imagery exists as the residual trace of the action and process.’ Miki MOCHIZUKA (b. 1974) is a painter and artist, who has held numerous solo exhibitions at Misako & Rosen, Tokyo, including ‘Skew’ (2023), ‘Haze’ (2019), ‘Distanciation’ (2016), ‘Quadrangle’ (2014), ‘SLS’ (2010), ‘KI’ (2009), and ‘ITO’ (2007). His works are widely exhibited internationally. Recent group exhibitions include ‘ENcounter’ (Zentrum für Kunst Bremen, Bremen, 2024) and Paris Internationale (2023). The artist lives and works in Shizuoka. |