Shopping Cart
Interview

What the artist Masaho Anotani found while walking in the woods.

2018.09.28
What the artist Masaho Anotani found while walking in the woods.

The serialization "Seekers of Freedom" is not bound by preconceived notions and touches on the thoughts of "Seekers of Freedom" who live faithfully to their own sense of beauty. Evoke the power of images.

-

This time's "Seeker of Freedom" is artist Masaho Annotani. Writer Yuki Hirakawa traveled to the springs at the foot of Mt. I will try to verbalize Mr. Annotani's thinking.

PROFILE

Masaho Anotani

Born in Hyogo Prefecture in 1991. He studied design at Kyoto Seika University and fine art at Gerrit Rietveld Academy in the Netherlands, and is currently based in Tokyo. The art book "STEIDL-WERK", produced by Singapore's National Treasure designer Theseus Chan and German company STEIDL, features Anotani's work in its entirety. He is an up-and-coming artist who is attracting attention for his future activities, such as his work being used in the 16-17AW collection of COMME des GARCONS SHIRT.

See birth in the water that springs to the surface

The Yatsugatake forest, which has reached the season of fresh green, was covered with fresh green.

The leaves through which the light passes sway in the wind, and the sunlight filtering through the leaves shines through the gaps.

The forest is beautifully colored.

We were walking through the woods, aiming for a spring.

Yatsugatake was born as if confronting the Southern Alps, which was raised by two continents colliding with each other.

The Southern Alps lived hundreds of millions to tens of millions of years ago,

Yatsugatake is said to be geologically 10,000 to 2,000,000 years old.

The water that passes through this stratum is springing up here and there.

He lay on his stomach and drank the spring water with his mouth on the surface of the river.

"If you drink it before you put it in your hand, it tastes even better.

I can feel the flow of the river flowing into my body. ”

This water is rain that fell on this land at least several decades ago.

It passed through the earth, was filtered little by little, and finally gushed out to the surface.

The water mixed with air for the first time in decades is filled with the joy of life.

Where such a mixture occurs

It is said that it is easy for new species to emerge.

Newly born water overflowing with vitality has now entered his body.

Carbon as a Circulatory Vessel

It is the carbon contained in the soil that filters water.

Carbon structurally has the property of accepting and adsorbing various substances.

The black soil that covers most of the plains of Japan

It was born as a result of thousands of years of slash-and-burn farming since the Jomon period.

A large amount of charcoal (carbon) is contained in the soil by repeating slash and burn.

Carbon has the highest melting and boiling points of all substances,

It remains even after other things burn out.

endless substance.

Carbon is the starting material for everything.

"The human body is the same as the earth.

What you take into your body is filtered,

Transform into different energies.

For me, that energy ends up in my creations. ”

It is not only what exists as material that is taken in.

"There's a strangely shaped tree over there.

It's so cool.

Even if you are not aware of such things,

I'm out in creation without permission.

Whether it's sound or sight, I'm absorbing this moment,

Before I take notes, I remember them unconsciously and draw naturally.

After I draw it, I notice, "Is that so?" ”

I am water and a vessel

Thoughts go underground.

It becomes more microscopic and enters the ground from where the water springs.

"I wonder if the same story exists not only on the surface of the earth, but also underground.

Unique minerals, stones and sand meet

"Hello" and a new child is born. ”

For example, it erupts and lava flows.

Even if the surface cools and hardens,

The lava in the center continues to melt, creating a cavity that fills with hot water.

The energy that goes into the cavity crystallizes and creates minerals such as crystal.

"The underground is also the same as the birth of a star.

absorb energy from the environment

When condensed to max

An explosion occurs and a star is born.

The birth of minerals is the same. ”

Everything is cyclical.

The energy that has begun to move transforms into new life again.

"It's like the bottom of a bowl.

I am in the center of the bottom of the bowl,

Wrapped in delicious soup.

Surely the whole world is a bowl,

We are wrapped in delicious soup.

Here, because the bowl is very small,

Easy to understand. ”

The way we see things changes the world.

Should we take the container of carbon as micro or macro?

in the woods,

The clogging of the filter is cleared in no time,

The circuit becomes smooth.

He who is water and vessel

Standing at the bottom of the vessel called forest, I feel the structure of the universe.

And through the forest, mixed with air different from the forest,
This is where new creations emerge.

Written by Yuki Hirakawa

Photo Go Itami

What the artist Masaho Anotani found while walking in the woods.

Subscribe to our Newsletter In addition to the latest information, subscriber-only content
We will send it to you by email