Perspective was established by the Renaissance, which occurred in northern Italy around the 15th century but did not enter Japan until the 19th century. Before that time, Japanese painters composed their pictorial spaces using the ‘atrium stall’: blown-off roof Yamato-e painting technique, an eye that grasped space not through perspective but from a flat perspective. As Japan underwent modernisation, our visual perception evolved to embrace perspective. Once we’ve acquired this new way of seeing, it becomes ingrained, making it challenging to revert to our previous perception.
This work series aims to create a ‘perspective pictorial space’ and an ‘atrium-stall-like flat pictorial space’ on the same plane. If you try to see the perspective space, the flat space will get in the way, and vice versa. Which is right and which is incorrect? The work is not only a question of pictorial space but also a metaphor for the cultural background brought about by Japan’s modernisation.