The world we live in is an extension of the world built by modernity. While technology continues to expand our vision, we are losing our relationship with the earth that lies beneath our feet. Many of us have long felt threatened by this situation, but we do not know how to get out of it. Until we come face to face with the paintings of Tomohito Ishii.
Human overconfidence in technology was already implied in the wings of Icarus in ancient Greek mythology. Icarus flew too high with the aid of his father's artificial wings, and the heat from the sun melted the wax of the wings, causing Icarus to crash into the sea. The technology in Ishii's paintings is an optical device. Sub Anaglyph is inspired by anaglyphs, images that are viewed through red and blue filters, and Sub Image is inspired by scanned images. Anaglyphs emerge three-dimensionally when the viewer wears 3D glasses, but we are forced to view them with the naked eye. Therefore, the image will never be formed. Scanners are originally designed to read two-dimensional images such as text or photographs, but the artist places three-dimensional objects, such as stones, on the scanner. The resulting image presents us with the illusion of blurred and shaky outlines.
Ishii's paintings thus take the principles of optical devices, which are a product of modernity, and dislocate the image. Since the 19th century, anaglyphs, scanners, and other technologies have converted everything into surface, i.e., data. Things have been freed from time and space, and now we can satisfy our visual needs anytime, anywhere. In other words, images have been separated from matter and have become information. Images as information, like stock photos and social media posts, have no mass, are anonymous and transparent. But images in painting are not information. As exemplified in modern painting, images in painting are opaque and within them the painter and material intervene: image and material are inextricably combined.
In Ishii's case, however, the materiality of the painting is entrusted to the other person or thing. This is because the materiality of the painting resides not in the painter's action, i.e., "brushstroke," but rather in the traces of the other — so to speak, "phenomenal materiality." Before a painting forms an image, it is a child's playground or the soil of a plant. In short, Ishii sees painting as a place where events occur, existing prior to images. It is as if he is consulting the spirit of the place.
The spirit of a place is the inherent character of the place. The term, now an important concept in landscape and urban design, can be traced back to an epistle written in 1731 by the poet Alexander Pope. Pope said of the landscape gardens that emerged in England at the time, "To build, to plant, whatever you intend, […] Consult the Spirit of the Place (genius loci) in all." This statement may evoke the idea of ubusunagami, a guardian deity who gives birth to the earth and all things. The spirit of a place, however, rather than a transcendent being, refers to the visual and physical characteristics of the place, such as its topography and geology, as well as its cultural characteristics, including human activity and history. In other words, the spirit of a place is the sum of memories, whether tangible or intangible, natural or artificial, that have been carved and accumulated in the land over a long period of time.
At first glance, it would seem that the spirit of a place and painting have nothing to do with each other. This is because, in contrast to the spirit of a place, which is concerned with "land (immovable property)," paintings are "canvas (movable property)." Paintings can be moved and installed anywhere, and the images depicted in them are also not dependent on location. Tracing the origin of painting, however, we find that it had a special relationship with place. As cave murals, ceiling frescoes in churches, and paintings on sliding paper doors (fusuma-e) in temples suggest, paintings originally created illusions by integrating with the space. They were images that inspired in viewers meditation or their own self-effacement, and at the same time, they were places leading from the everyday to another world. Like gardens, paintings were a way to manifest the spirit of a place. The place of painting — for Ishii, it is first of all the city. The artificial environments he has repeatedly painted, such as suburban housing and greenhouse botanical gardens, are truly negatives of the city. Just as the optical apparatus severed the relationship between matter and image, the development of urban engineering during the Industrial Revolution gradually separated man from the earth. Ishii, who was born and raised in Tama New Town, projects himself into the lives of migrants and tropical plants that have no connection to the land. Ishii's paintings are "self-portraits" in this respect.
Nevertheless, the artist's interest is not so much in his own inner self, but rather in the environment that surrounds humankind. In this age of global urbanization, it could be said that everyone is more or less a rootless city dweller. If so, Ishii's paintings are also self-portraits of us.
We must not forget that a painting is a place itself before it represents a place. The image on the canvas, as with the spirit of a place, is a superposition of actions at different times. Furthermore, it does not necessarily follow any chronological order. Behaviors from the distant past may suddenly appear in front of the viewer's eyes. This is why, in the homogeneous city, painting once again becomes a place to summon the spirit of the place. It is a critique of contemporary urban life that goes beyond modern self-reference.
While using the fundamental visual medium of painting, Ishii carefully avoids giving information or pleasure, temporarily paralyzing the viewer's vision. He then nullifies the symbolic images that cover contemporary society and opens the door to the real world beyond them. When we sense the presence of others or the workings of nature there, we will regain our connection to the world and be given new life.
"Icarus and the spirit of place" Press release