"Himalia" Ikumi Aihara June 2012, 6 - June 25, 2012
Venue: Art Gallery T+
Date: December 2012, 6 - January 25, 2012
Exhibitor: Ikumi Aihara (2nd year master's student, Department of Art and Design, Graduate School of Comprehensive Human Sciences)
I am thinking of combining video, two-dimensional works, and installations.
T+review
Thirty small square boards were lined up in a row on two white walls of the gallery. There was nothing else to be seen. The gallery was very quiet. The 2 boards had black and white pictures on them. It was a continuous story.
The story unfolds from right to left. It begins with a boy setting free a horse that was used in a carriage. The free horse gallops off, leaving its owner in despair. Meanwhile, what awaits the boy as he leaves the crowd is the accusing gaze of the people. Surrounded by the eyes of the people, the boy gradually grows older. He ages from a boy to a young man, and then to an old man. The faces of the people watching the boy gradually turn into the street lights of the city. All that surrounds him as an old man is the street lights. Then the scene changes to a forest. The free horse gallops through the forest. It probably keeps running until the boy grows old and becomes an old man. When the horse leaves the forest, it lies quietly. And there is only an empty earth.
A very, very long time was contained in these 30 paintings. Even though I only saw fragments of the story, I felt as if I had seen the whole thing. Scenes changed and a long time passed, but the story unfolded at a dizzying pace with a natural flow that felt natural. After I finished looking at the works, I felt a quiet loneliness. I found myself thinking vaguely about the fragility of freedom, the transience of life, and looked over and over again at the 2 story paintings on the two walls. The silence inside the gallery enhanced the atmosphere of the works, creating a space that allowed me to be immersed in deep emotion. When I opened the door, the usual scene unfolded before me, but inside the gallery, it had been transformed into a special space that made me forget that. (Inoue Yuri)
