Untitled. 1983. Mineral pigment, sumi, paper and playing cards on washi.
At the most recent First Thursday Night on Main Street, I came upon a display of images taken from Japanese woodblock prints. Having studied in Japan, I was intrigued and struck up a conversation with R. Chambers LeHeup. It turns out that he is credited with writing a kind of haiku comic book entitled "Heavy Feather Falls". The excellent manga-like drawings are by Sammy and Dre. Together, they are the Piensa Art Company.
The images in the comic are of Japanese warriors fighting to the death in and around a stream. While all this commotion is taking place, a delicate white feather floats in and around the battlefield. The text is written in the form of a haiku. It is this juxtaposition of violence and beauty that permeates so much of Japanese art from the 15th century to the present. Seeing these images reminded me of one of my own paintings from my period of study in Japan.
While living in New York City in the 70's, I became enamored of Japanese samurai films from the 50's and 60's. Once a week, I would walk to the West Village to see a double feature and many times, the director would be present to talk about the picture. The films were all black and white and very graphic both in imagery and content.
As with the Heavy Feather Falls, there would be points of heavenly beauty interspersed with bloody swordplay. Most of us know the image of the brave Samurai warrior admiring the cherry blossoms just before going into battle
The picture I have shown above was inspired by all of these things. Samurai movies, woodblock prints and tales of courtly love. In the center of this picture, we see a very angry Samurai about to draw his sword. The landscape is foreboding with its black sky and boiling land punctuated by jagged lightening, but at the top we see a series of very delicate and beautiful flags with origami cranes. These would have been the battle flags of the competing armies, but in this case, they are beautiful floating objects in contrast to the violence below.
On either side of the Samurai, we see the beautiful and fashionable nobility. In this case, a woman on the left and a man on the right. They are lovers and written above them are their passionate love poems. Perhaps these images are the dreams of the Samurai. Perhaps he is a jealous lover about to dispatch his rival. In any case, the picture illustrates this constant push and pull, give and take between sublime beauty and the brutal and violent realities of this world.
A note on the painting. This picture was made using traditional Japanese materials. The support is what is known as a Mashi Board - washi stretched over a board and glued only on the back. this allows the washi (what westerners call rice paper) to expand and contract as it is being painted. When the painting is wet, the paper is slack and sometimes wrinkles, but when dry, it is very tight and flat.
The black is sumi ink - made from the soot produced by burning rapeseed oil. The gold color is powdered mica with added colors. The six flag-like shapes are actually hand-made decorative paper which have been glued to the painting with rice paste. the images of the woman and man are two of a set of educational playing cards designed to teach "The Tale of Genji", Genji-Mono-Gatari. The warior in the middle is actually a kind of postcard detail of a woodblock print. All were glued to the painting with rice paste.
I hope you enjoyed this post and encourage you to comment. Stay tuned for more. Patrick, AKA Potlick
No comments:
Post a Comment