"Himalaya" Ikuyo Ueno May 2012, 5 - May 21, 2012
Venue: Art Gallery T+
Date: December 2012, 5 - January 21, 2012
Exhibitor: Ikuyo Ueno (4th year, Western painting)
Mountain Painting
T+review
Hanging on the wall is a collection of images that make you think, "That's the Himalayas." A large square is divided into about 10 sections, and each screen depicts a mountain range with various colors and angles. Mountains bathed in a soft orange light, as if lit by the setting sun. Mountains under a starry sky. Some mountains are depicted in a green color that seems impossible in reality, while others are pure white like glaciers - the image of the Himalayas we often see - and mountains floating in the darkness. The "Himalayas" are a collection of expressive mountains.
"The Himalayas"? Here, I felt a strange sense of incongruity. Are these mountains really the "Himalayas"? Indeed, the name of this exhibition is "Himalayas". However, nowhere is there any information presented that the mountains depicted are the Himalayas. When looking at the work, the question arises as to whether we, the viewers, are arbitrarily associating the information we receive from the exhibition name with the work. Even though it may not actually be a painting of the Himalayas, we assume that this work is the "Himalayas". This may be a reflection of our usual attitude of relying on information.
When we look at a work of art, is it possible to view it without some preconceptions or prior information? Preconceptions limit what a work can convey. In other words, they limit what we can take in. When viewing this exhibition, "Himalayas," without the preconceived notion that the mountains depicted are the Himalayas, what remains in the depicted mountains? It is probably the individuality that each mountain possesses as a single mountain. Before the depicted mountains were determined to be the "Himalayas," what and how they possessed as a "mountain range" remain on the screen in their pure state. Is this mountain, bathed in orange by the setting sun, the Himalayas or not? Either way, the pure image of a "mountain" is present on the screen. (Okano Emiko)
