This is a collection of the participating artists' ideas about their works, their day-to-day thoughts as they created them, their moods and how they felt about taking part in the 3rd exhibition of Amabiki Village and Sculpture. Click on the name of the artist.
- SHIBATA Tsugio
- The constantly fluctuating patterns of sunlight pouring in through the trees creates a stream of shades of brightness and darkness in the forest, which is suffused with something akin to a life force creating a space that I find extraordinarily attractive. The works reflect the idea of a gathering together inside the forest. The people who have gathered together take on forms similar to the trees, so that their shadows cast on the earth are transformed into a forest.
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- SUZUKI Norio
- Opposed to the objective, visible world, the things actually touched by the sun, is the underlying unseen or spiritual world, things below the ground. Which of these worlds is the essential nature of things and which is important? And what should we protect? What should we leave behind? I have carefully pondered these questions.
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- HIROSE Hikaru
- The flow of the river, rice paddies, fields, houses and plant life is in a uniformly north-south direction. I felt as if they were moving north to south, imperceptibly and slowly, in the same way as the air density. The physical problem with the work I planned to put here I could visualize, so it was more important to make a form that would take in the surroundings, take them in and let them flow out.
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- MATSUDA Bumpei
- There is a first impression we absorb to learn what lies under the surface, and the form of a thing is erased when its surface has been cut away to the limit. It's just like peeling off the layers of an onion to check what there is inside. Stone is a material of the solid. So it is well suited for grasping the inside and outside.
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- MIZUKAMI Yoshihisa
- About the place 光音風臭気冷気透明偏光明滅 狂犬麦汽車緑青呼吸腐蝕仮死夢臨終至上完全
水平垂直上昇下降圧力重力多重屈折温度真空 東西南北春夏秋冬時空静止雲水付虚無石微動
因果遠近農夫迷信忘却過去湿地田園境内子供 酸化陰摂取灰研磨臓樹液死骸雲母石英御影石
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- MURAKAMI Tsukumo
- My mother is 93 years old. Her eyes, ears and speech are fine. Her body is shrinking, and she's become as light as a child, but she is an irreplaceable presence. Perhaps the idea that I am striving to please my mother is at the back of my mind. I must fill my time by carving imperfect existence as a way of facing the sense of terror and emptiness generated by the absolute absence that comes to us all, and that certain void which is sure to come to me too. So, I carve and assemble wood, placing the work in an ascending space (the waterside).
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- OKAMOTO Atsuo
- The word "Unit", which I took as the title, can mean "a basic element that cannot be broken down further." This environment in which this "Unit" is placed presents no problem. I think it could be in the mountains, as now, in the city, or even in a home. The number 9910, which follows "Unit" is the perception number of the piece; A. LB. is the concept of the form; s1/1 is the scale; and "ri" is the number of the thing stuffed inside.
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- FUJIMOTO Hitoshisadanari
- My making things is an encounter with art. Through this creation, I hope to glimpse "the nature of existence." At present, I am also interested in methods and modalities of art itself. This work is focused on viewing, so I hope people can see something like the outlines of art.
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- SHIMADA Tadayuki
- In modern times, art is taking the place of religion in bringing transcendent experiences to people. For example, sculpture is a device through which people can see and feel things that are not physically present. With the forest as the stage, I want to unveil stories that can be read and interpreted in many ways.
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- TABE Kenzo
- The materials for this piece are components of broken-down machines, broken water boilers, discarded cycle parts and the like. It is my job to take things that this world has finished with and give them new life in a new world.
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- WATANABE Hiroshi
- In the "Record of Ancient Matters" (Ko-ji-ki), there is a consistent theme of "use everything around to build a nation". In this land, I feel that nation. I saw the abundant land in which people live. Then I saw raccoon dogs. It's good that this kind of nature exists. It's a good thing that humans can live alongside raccoon dogs. Don't lose that. I made this piece with a prayer to the guardian deity of raccoon dogs.
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- KUNIYASU Takamasa
- I was amazed by the number of holding ponds around Amabiki Village. In rice-growing regions, water itself is a gift that leads to life. I felt the hardship of the way modern culture is heading, denying the direct link between nature and life. I wanted to create an abode for the gods in order to call for rain.
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- YASUDA Masako
- Taking the art I worked on doggedly, day by day, in my studio, and dragging it out into limitless natural space seems to have given me some answers. With the scent of the grass in the air, I was always thinking, "Would it be OK to put it here?"
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- MURAI Shingo
- Water, a substance that comes around in a cycle, and stone, which is in a stable state, form a unity. Water changes from moment to moment; a rock holds back time. How do the natures of different things restrain and influence each other, forming a new vastness of groves.
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- OHGURI Katsuhiro
- I set up a piece that evokes the flow of water on a farm field. Now the water that is directly linked to our daily lives is beset by many problems, such as acid rain and dioxins. What becomes of water is what will become of we humans. I was thinking of a work that would speak of people's individual attitudes to water.
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- TAMURA Tomoyoshi
- "Pachamama" was drawn from the name of one of the gods of the Inca Empire.
It represents a figure wrapped in a poncho and hat that has transformed into a mountain with the passage of tens of millennia.
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- NAKAIGAWA Yuki
- Amid the rain of May, I found a small holding pond with a forest at its back. Such holding ponds are dotted around this area of Yamato Village, and they are a characteristic of the land. I decided to install my piece in this pond, which is one of them. I work in clay, firing it to produce my piece, but I always find the forms that I want to shape in nature. Wondering how the appearance of a thing I made in that way would shift when placed in a corner of that pond was a pleasure, but also scary.
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- YAMAJO Rei
- I want to create new spaces by combining slender brass. The first time I visited Yamato Village, I was struck by the beautiful, sparkling air, the light and the wind. I want to express that sparkle among the trees, where soft sunlight penetrates.
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- TAKADA Satoru
- Various ways in which humans can attempt to coexist with the natural environment in the future have been proposed. They are probably offered in the hope that humans can directly comprehend the beauty and awe of nature, and maintain its blessings eternally. This "Bio-Bridge" sculpture is derived from a concept not found in conventional outdoor works. Its structure floats on the water, but rather than just making it float, I thought about how the aquatic ecosystem could be used to maintain clear, clean water. This is a kind of regenerating biotope that generates catharsis, using microorganisms in the water, to allow its circulation. The concept of the sculpture itself is to give a perceptual representation of the DNA double helix of life, extending from the water into the air. The 60mm pipes that enter the water are welded and shaped so that an abstract form floats in unfocused space. The form is a clear, pale blue in the light of day, but by night the heat of UV rays is used to emit a beautiful glowing light, using fluorescent materials. The light turns on and off at a leisurely rate, like that of fireflies. Structurally, buoyancy was required to make the piece float. I used stainless steel drums for that purpose. I had to calculate the ballast to adjust overall balance. The drums are arranged in an equilateral triangle and jointed into one piece with steel pipes in an area 50cm deep. The environmental mechanism used to regenerate the environment for the water was an artificial reef in which phytoplankton take in nutrient salts that are the cause of pollution. I think this is an effective measure to protect the environment by encouraging the food chain, suppressing phytoplankton, and increasing water purity. The use of photovoltaic cells is another built-in feature. The piece generates its own power. It would shine at night even if placed in a big lake.
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- YAMAZAKI Takashi
- At the entrance to the path approaching Aoki shrine the granite torii gate has blended into the surrounding view over many years. In this work, which represents a gift mounted on a trolley, I aimed for spatial and ideological coexistence with the torii. I'd like anyone who wants to do so to put anything they like on the trolley.
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- HIRAI Kazuyoshi
- If things like genetic modification can produce bigger beans, what would happen to the bean plant? It'd be great if this stayed as a legend in the hearts of people who came to see it and later told others, "They had that kind of thing at Aoki shrine."
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- SAITO Toru
- Looking at the structures built by humans on the earth, I am often amazed by the power of science and civilization, but when I consider the phenomena that occur on a global scale (climatic events, subterranean movements, etc.) and the energy that drives them, I am keenly aware of humanity's powerlessness. Sometimes we forget the blessings of the earth, stand against it and head towards excessive development and destruction. I take the position that humans should work with nature so that when we take energy from nature, we return it. I think the same about "Sky to Earth ··· (Nonument)" in this place.
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- MAKI Wataru
- For the long time I've spent carving stone, I've felt like I'm tormenting the stone, splitting and piercing it. Or it's been tormenting me. But here I want the stone to walk freely, on its own legs, to a world we have not yet seen.
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- TANAKA Tsuyoshi
- Perhaps I'll encounter lavishly blossoming flowers that have withstood wind and rain, and the strong sun and heat of the tropics?
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- SATO Akira
- I want to carve away the inside of the stone, into a form like an empty shell, and show it in contrast to the sky and the surrounding scenery. That idea was the starting point for my work. I looked in Yamato Village for a place to realize that idea, and it began to take form, with the help of many people. So, this is the beginning.
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- SUGAWARA Jiro
- I created this piece because I wanted to see what form I would get from cutting a square pillar into six pieces and assembling all of them with their insides facing outwards, and to see what emotion that would evoke in me. Theoretically, if you put all the pieces together in the right positions they would make the original column.
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- KAIZAKI Saburo
- I found a workplace that is indoors but feels like a semi-outdoor space. Those two halves are strangely reconciled and fused in what felt like a very fresh and novel space. This time I plan to install a work in iron measuring 156×124×100cm there.
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- MOCHIZUKI Hisaya
- I'm installing my work on the river bank. The flow of the river and the changes of the rice paddies around appear, at first sight, to be going on with no relation to it. However, as with the cycles we feel in daily repetitions and the circle of the seasons, nothing is the same and it is in the midst of change." Presence" seems to be a kind of marker that isolates time and place.
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- NISHIKAWA Toshio
- I'm living in the small town of Sagamiko, population around 11,000, in Kanagawa prefecture. It is surrounded by mountains on all sides and lies at the north end of the Tanzawa massif. Amabiki Village, in contrast, is situated on the Kanto plain, at the edge of an enormous horizontal expanse of limitless space. How will my sculpture, which physically has no surfaces, be reconfigured by the gaze of viewers in this place, with Mt. Tsukuba as its backdrop?
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- OTSUKI Takayuki
- In the course of making my work, entitled "Ark", I went many times to its site by the river to ponder what I could do between the broad sky and the wind-crossed grassland. I hope the viewers can see, through the medium of this work, the sky, clouds and greenery beyond.
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- MIYAZAWA Izumi
- Day by day, I want to take the green that comes to my eyes, the green that my ears can hear, and carve it into the stone.
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- Group · RA (SAJI Masahiro & Members)
- Many artists have bound the trees of the forest with bandages as a message calling for protection of the global environment, and prepared a large screen on which adults and children viewing the work can express their thoughts, thereby participating in the art. There are also compost-type toilets. Please feel and experience the forest of living things.
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- KOGUCHI Kazuya
- I took the theme of the wind god for the second exhibit and the land god for this exhibit, attempting to open a dialog with all things. The god of the golden mirror is celebrated at a site with a frontal view of Mt. Tsukuba, The big bottle is dedicated in front of the straw shrine, carry on a dialog with all living things, including the soil, at a corner of the woods, about "life" is.