Event Horizon
text by Chihiro Kabata

from booklet "Azamino Contemporary vol.2 Viewpoints"
Jan 2012

 

 

When something cannot be seen - that is when the imagination is stimulated the most.
Not showing something - that is one way of creating an impression of an existence that is stronger than when it can be seen.


When trying to create an artwork through the negative act of not showing, you need to create a suitable "doorway" by which the viewer's imagination can be stimulated.
I choose painting to be that "doorway." I think the most suitable paintings for that task are abstract paintings, because they demand a lot of the viewer's imagination.


When you try to create such a painting, you have to be careful because as soon as you depict a recognizable "subject" in the painting then you are restricting the viewer's imagination.
For example, you might unwittingly restrict it in terms of scale or time.
What you are trying to achieve is a painting that will serve as a catalyst for an imaginary leap to a place that transcends scale, a place that cannot normally be imagined.

In my paintings I don't depict particular subjects and thus avoid introducing this kind of restriction.


I make many tens of thousands of lines in the paintings, and yet I never actually depict anything.
You could say that the lines I make are horizons, borders between the visible and the invisible. As such they are absolute, and cannot be crossed by me or the viewer.