Unseen Existence, Inherited Memories
Starting with a fear of the dark, we are all afraid of things that we cannot see, and things that we do not know.
We don't know what is out there. Or if what is out there is a friendly presence, or something that can harm us. It could be a living creature that we have never seen before, or knowledge that we previously did not know. As people, we are deeply unsettled by phenomena that are unknown to us.
What if the imaginary creatures that we see in our dreams when we are young actually arise from a sense of awe that we instinctively feel towards nature, be it darkness, the depths of the forest, or the bottom of a river? And what if we still carry that with us engraved into our very selves, only for something to remind us every now and then of the comfort and fear that we feel towards nature, but had almost forgotten?
Were the traditions and mythologies of countries around the world a figment of our imaginations? No—though we are unable to see them in the modern age, they were once living things with which we co-existed, and were tied closely to our daily lives. This work portrays these unseen beings, through a collaboration of plants and artificial objects.
暗闇をはじめ、人は見えないものへの恐怖・知らないものへの恐怖が常にある。何がいるのかわからない。良い存在なのか悪い存在なのか。 それは、見たことのない生き物だったり、知られていない知識であったり。人は知らない事象には、とてつもなく不安を感じる。
幼い頃、夢の中に出てきた想像の生き物達は、実は暗闇・森の中・川の底などに本能的に感じた自然への畏敬の念がもとになっていたのではないか。
そして、それらは今も体のどこかに刻み込まれていてちょっとしたきっかけで忘れかけていた自然に対する安心感と不安感といったものを思い出すのではないか。
各地に残る伝説や神話は、人々の創造上の産物なのか、否、現代では見えなくなってしまったが、かつては私たちの身近に存在し、共存していた生き物だったのだろう。
