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To Cross Borders - Sunset on the Seine
2017
墨、料紙
額装寸法: 64.5 cm x 64.5 cm
文面: セーヌ河にかかる200本の橋の名前
The discrimination I experienced in my globe-trotting background led to “Crossing Borders” becoming one of the core ideas of my artworks.
My aim in my work is to create pieces based on borderless common ideas shared by human beings, independent of the culture or epoch.
What are borders? Some people may imagine national borders. Others may think of borders between different religions. Cultural differences can also be perceived as borders. Even within the same culture there are borders, for example between generations, eras or genders.
It sometimes takes courage to cross borders. Looking at the current geopolitical climate makes me feel that deepening our mutual understanding would help solve confrontation.
Since prehistoric times, bodies of water have played a role as natural borders, and humans have always had a deep desire to cross these borders. For example, the Rubicon was the border between the Roman province Cisalpine Gaul and Italy during the Roman Republic. The Spree River was also used in part as a strict border dividing West and East Berlin during the Cold War.
Apart from their geometric symbolism, water surfaces sometimes form borders in people’s minds. The differentiation between “Rive Gouche” and “Rive Droite” already indicates that the people in Paris consider the Seine as a conceptual border.
Humans have made serious efforts to build crossings on water surfaces. "Like a bridge over troubled water. I will lay me down", so sings Simon & Garfunkel, using a bridge as a metaphor for the connection between people. Bridges also conjure an image of opening the future and showing a new world. Even in the forefront of the Christian world, the root word for "Pope", "Pontifex Maximus" means "the greatest bridge builder". There are 200 crossings on the Seine from the estuary to the source. I would like to believe that these crossings are not only a mean of transportation, but that they also bring together the hearts of people and the future.
Thematically, a sunset on a water surface has always inspired artists - in any time or place. To mention a few, the French painter Claude Monet (1840-1926) painted his "Sunset on the Seine" series; the Japanese woodcut print artist Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) also drew "Viewing the Sunset over Ryōgoku Bridge from the Onmaya Embankment"; the Norwegian painter Edvard Munch (1863-1944)’s masterpiece "The Scream" is also sunset on a fjord; and the Chinese Poet Wang Zhihuan (688-742) described the Yellow River at sunset.
Why did they all find the combination of water surface and sunset beautiful, despite having nothing in common personally? These coincidences are my eternal theme, since I believe that borders can be crossed if you focus more on these similarities among humans.
