AMABIKI VILLAGE AND SCULPTURE

AMABIKI 2011 / KUNIYASU Takamasa

Dragon Pagoda 2011

Log, Ceramic block, Steel pipe
800×800×1,200 (h)cm

Dusk comes early in North Kanto in the winter. How many days did I spend alone, gazing at the low, red sun? I was brought up at 30 below, so the Amabiki winter is mild and friendly to me. I wanted to build a dragon god here in the clear sky to watch over the fields.

AMABIKI 2008 / KUNIYASU Takamasa

Flowers

Log, Brick, Steel pipe
800×800×200 (h)cm x2 pieces

By visiting Amabiki many times, one can understand those things that change and those that do not. There are unchanging things amid those that are transient, and those that do not move on eventually disappear. I want to gaze quietly upon the things that do not change, and be taken in by transient existence. Nothing will remain, and nothing can remain. After a long enough time of circulation and repetition, there is no one thing that I am satisfied with.

AMABIKI 2006 / KUNIYASU Takamasa

Dragon Pagoda 2006

Logs, Ceramic blocks, Steel pipes
800×1000×1600 (h)cm

Seen from the south-facing slope of Mt. Haneda, the beautiful, red sun is a striking sight as it sets to the west, beyond the fields and the rice paddies of Kanto Plain that stretches all the way to Mt. Fuji. In this rice-growing area at the edge of the mountains where the plains start, I wanted to build a tower for the dragon god as an effigy to protect the rain. My sculpture always embodies the wish to be touched by a great, invisible something.

THE FIFTH AMABIKI VILLAGE AND SCULPTURE / KUNIYASU Takamasa

Pagoda

Log, Brick, Steel pipe
400×400×1200 cm
3000 kg

I always start my work by getting a read on the atmosphere of the place. I'd like to put something up in one corner of a copse with Mt. Tsukuba in the background in the misty distance to draw the spirit of heaven to earth. My sculpture could be an object drawing the spirit of heaven near, like the weather of Amabiki (literally "Rain-Drawing) Village. I want to make a tower-shaped sculpture with the image of gathering rain. My hope is to have some big thing here, something that can be sensed by not seen.

THE FOURTH AMABIKI VILLAGE AND SCULPTURE / KUNIYASU Takamasa

Nymphaea

Log, Brick, Rubber tube
1100×1100×250 cm
2000 kg

Walking around the rice-growing area of Amabiki Village, one becomes aware that water is a gift that spins into life. The moment I saw the reservoir pool with Mt. Tsukuba behind it, I wanted to float my work there, like a flowering lotus. I wanted to create a work that, like a lotus, would represent the invisible cosmos between this world and the world beyond, the resting place. I wanted to see it with my own eyes and make it part of the scenery of Amabiki.

THE THIRD AMABIKI VILLAGE AND SCULPTURE / KUNIYASU Takamasa

Altar of Rain

Bricks, Logs
600×600×800 cm
750 kg

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.