波と海

海のある街に移住して八年が過ぎる。とりたてて海のレジャーに興じているわけではないが、海辺を歩き、眺め、子供達と過ごし、海の景色は日常の一場面になった。もちろんいいことばかりではない。海に包囲された地震大国のこの国で、海の近くに住むリスクもそれなりに理解している。海の恩恵もリスクも感じながら、一方、海を題材にした数多の絵画や写真、アートが海を見るたびに脳裏をよぎる。新しくもないありふれたテーマであることは承知しているが、自分も海を題材にした制作を行うことは避けられないように思えた。

制作はいつもランダムに撮りためた凡庸な写真を見返すところからはじまるが、ひとつの題材に絞って撮影するのは今回が初めてだ。展示作品に使った写真は二千枚を超える中から選んだが、選ばれなかった写真はもとより「撮られなかった写真」の数はその比ではない。それに付随する「描かれなかった絵画」も同様に。波のように終わりなく現れては消え去る選外の存在なしには、ここにある作品はなかったはずだ。

Waves and Sea

It has been eight years since I moved to a city by the sea. While not particularly engaged in seaside amusements as such, as I’ve strolled the shores, watched the waves, and spent time with my children there, the seaside has become part of my daily life. Living in a country surrounded on all sides by water with as much seismic activity as this one, living near the sea does carry its risks, but I like to think I understand them well. 

Reflecting on the benefits and risks of the ocean has led me to create many paintings and photographs on the theme and each time I look seaward, art seems to track its way across the recesses of my mind. Although I understand full well that the ocean has been explored as a theme by many before me, I’ve come to feel it inevitable that I too must explore her depths. My process typically begins with reconsidering random pairings of nondescript photographs taken from daily life, but this is the first time I’ve shot a body of images centered aroaund a single theme. 

The photographs used in the works presented in this exhibition were selected from a body of more than two thousand, but the many photos I didn’t take, and paintings I didn’t paint outnumber even those. Without the endless sea of choices not made – appearing and disappearing like waves crashing on the shore – the works collected here could not exist.