OHYA MASAAKI: WHEN OBSERVATION BECOMES INVESTIGATION (TEXT MONICA ANZILIERO)
OHYA MASAAKI: WHEN OBSERVATION BECOMES INVESTIGATION
Critical essay: Monica Anziliero
Ohya Masaaki focuses his artistic production on the observation of nature through images and using different artistic techniques and materials. The artist, observing nature, focuses on larger issues such as the eternity of life and the passage of time. In his first series of works, entitled Permanent Power, the artist depicts, through the techniques of etching and drypoint, the architecture of certain natural plants and flowers. The paper, on which the internal parts of the plant are represented, is divided vertically to emphasize the passing of time where the image on the right is nothing more than the evolution in time and space to the left. In these works, in addition, the seeds are depicted, described as “asleep” by the artist, which represent the musical notes that nature uses to compose what Masaaki defines “towane”, or the “eternal sound” of the life cycle in the next series of works entitled A priori towane. Plants, and nature in general, are those which can best interpret the passage of time and the eternity of life, the artist observes them grow day by day in his garden, examines the decay and finally death back to the ground and then rebirth through those seeds which until now had remained silent.
The investigation of the nature and the cycle of life also takes place not only with the depiction of plants, but also through the use of natural materials that are proposed for the first time in the cycle A thought on observing time (2003-2004) and were subsequently included in the 2011 cycle of the same name; in these two series the artist describes the dichotomy between life and death. In fact, Masaaki uses natural materials with their own symbols: beeswax, taken from the hive that expresses the creation and the emergence of life, is placed in opposition to lead and other elements that express the end of life through the cold and inert metal. In the 2003-2004 cycle the artist only uses materials of natural origin, while in the 2011 cycle, built after the earthquake of Sendai and the Tohoku and the subsequent nuclear accident, he also inserts elements derived from artificial intelligence (such as plastic).
In addition to the contrast between life and death, Masaaki also tells that between nature and artifice. Despite the considerable influence that the nuclear accident has had on the life of the artist and the people of Japan, Masaaki observes that everything that is artificial can be attributed to the natural world in a kind of global cycle of life. In fact, in his reflection tied to the cycle A thought on observing time after 3.11, compares the microscopic configuration of the metals resulting from the accident (such as cesium and iodine) to flowers that bloom every day in the natural world.
Finally, the dichotomies of life and death and nature-artifice are inherent also to the artistic technique used by Masaaki: incision. The artist creates his works with two printmaking techniques, sometimes used in combination (as in cycle Permanent Power), namely etching and drypoint. The process of engraving involves the use of the paint to make the copper plate inert to acid, which represents the natural part of the process because it is made from materials such as wax and bitumen, while the acid component represents the artificial because made of chemical materials. The engraving technique can also be interpreted as the life cycle of a work of art: the work is conceived when the copper plate is treated with paint to make it inert to acid, it grows through the incision of the plate, decays and dies with the action of the acid, and finally is reborn with the ink impression and drawing on paper.
NATURE: BEYOND TIME AND SPACE seeks to revive the method of observation and investigation of nature by dividing the show into three sections, each devoted to a meditative moment: from observation, to reflection, to consciousness. The “observation” section included the works of the cycle Permanent Power where Masaaki shows on paper what he sees in his garden at home focusing on the anatomical structure of nature; the tour continues with “reflection”, which exhibits the works of the cycle A priori towane (2005) as reasoning on the sculptural cycle of life. The exhibition ends in the moment of awareness of the natural world through the works of the cycle A thought on observing time after 3.11.