LandE scape
Christin Bolewski
CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW
and its philosophical contents, metaphor plays a huge role in the work: The theme of the‘ journey’ is an enduring theme in Chinese landscape paintings. This means yearning for the spiritual, the remote, or the unattainable. The artist frequently portrays himself as a lone figure, a romantic fugitive, wandering into the uninhabited parts of nature where he can linger forever.
Shizen? Natural refers to the nuclear meltdown after the Earthquake and Tsunami in Japan in 2011. I went to Japan in 2010. The plan was to make a video painting about the huge contrast between ancient traditional Japanese culture and the modern extremely technology based and artificial life which exists there today. I recorded traditional temples and gardens now filled up with modern tourists and overcrowded street scenes in Tokyo as the modern replace for the ancient pilgrims. When the Tsunami happened it was unavoidable that it would become a central part of the work and also that this event would become the central metaphor for a global question and challenge arising for mankind: to coexist in harmony or to control, master and continue to exploit nature. Shizen? Natural also presents and reinterprets an old poem of the famous Japanese poet Yamabe no Akahito celebrating nature and iconic Mount Fuji as a reflection on the conflicting relationship struggling between ancient tradition and technological and cultural progress.
In mountain-water-painting I replaced the ancient pilgrim with the figure of the Western mountaineer equipped with special tools and protective clothing to vanquish the highest peaks in order to conquer nature. This work also presents a traditional poem, this time it is of the famous Chinese poet Han Shan as a reflection on the mountaineers fight against nature counterpointing the Chinese attempt of spiritual harmony.
Both videos painting play with absence and presence, totality and emptiness, materiality and transcendence. 3D
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