© Masaki Komatsu
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An installation art space for Japanese dance. The lotus is a sacred flower in Japan. In Japanese gardens, ponds with lotus flowers are usually shrouded in a light mist in the early morning when the flowers are in bloom. A fog seems to visualize the fragrance of lotus flowers. In Japan, fog represents profundity and has a sacred atmosphere. It is a mist formed by delicate light and water particles that catch the light. I tried to design a new space by objects that have such a vague appearance.
"Lines" that fill the space. A hazy, misty existence created by countless "lines". The "line" has a Japanese beauty, as if it softly absorbs light, rather than strongly repelling it. Over a thousand "lines". By designing the sparseness of how the lines come together, a gradation with shades of transparency is drawn, spreading across the space. The delicate artwork touches the light and depicts the vague figure of light, revealing the existence of the air that fills the space.
A space that seems to be enveloped in a rising mist develops Japanese Dance. The more than 1,000 lines are made of very thin wooden squares of 4 mm square. The lines are attached to a delicate lattice, assembled with metal rods of about 1.0 mm in diameter, and are suspended from the ceiling. The spatial points, such as the planar position and height of these square timbers, are calculated and placed, one by one, using 3D modeling design technology to create a fog-like gradation of light. It follows the way gardeners who maintain the beauty of Japanese gardens adjust the density of branches and leaves by pruning trees, creating gradations of sparseness, and denseness to design transparency and depth. The material for the 4mm square ultra-fine square lumber is Japanese cypress. In Japan, the Japanese cypress is considered to be a tree in which the gods dwell. This material is made from the scraps of thinned wood that protect the cypress forests. As a result, this installation is a sustainable design that can be developed in a variety of ways to suit different spaces by changing the number of lines and the arrangement of the lines.
The beauty of Japanese space is designed and created by the shades of shadow created by the fragile and weak light. It is also the Japanese sense of beauty in space, as discussed by Junichiro Tanizaki in his "In Praise of Shadows". In other words, the main theme of Japanese spatial design is not to design the form itself, but to design the effect brought about by the manipulation of the form. We have inherited that theme as well. Lines pouring down from the sky gathered in countless numbers, appearing as a huge mist-like figure, covering the space. The dancers are enveloped in a rising fog. The fog gently catches the light, and the fog changes its appearance by the light. This envelops the dancers in light. We were able to create a space design that resonates with the light and softly envelops the dancers.