Seen: 氣の果て / The End of Qi
Who: Tomona Hayashi
Where: 3rd District Gallery, Shinjuku
When: September 9 - 21, 2014 / 1pm-8pm
Tomona told me she thought that directly pinning her prints to the walls of the gallery is a more fitting way to display them compared to being neatly matted and lined up on the wall. It’s true that work in this current show would have a different impact on the viewer if it was exhibited such a traditional way. That’s the thing- there number of ways to deal with pictures is uncountable. So what you see in a gallery is what you get- it’s the physical result of the time, talent, desires, and whims of the artist and their environment. If what you see doesn’t connect there’s no use in struggling with it- move on. If what you see creates a spark- or makes you look at life afterwards a little differently then it’s worth keeping in mind. Tomona’s work has this effect on me, anyway.
The responsibility of the viewer isn’t to try and determine the intention of an artist- it’s to figure out what the things you see mean to you.
The responsibility of the artist- the only responsibility- is to keep on working. I’m glad that Tomona keeps on making pictures.