Koichi Hiraki at Gallery Tubaki, Ginza, Tokyo
Hideharu Ogawa Translated by Masato Fujii
courtesy of the artist
I wonder if Japanese contemporary art has an identity in any true sense of the word. Having largely exhausted their ability to present unconventional artistic ideas, most Japanese artists are now waiting for new developments. In this context, they are highly interested in trends of American and European art, but in these regions also, significant new developments are hard to find. However some Japanese artists don’t concern themselves with this situation. Instead, they create their works by immersing themselves in their own inner world. Their goal is to develop their own, internal mythology from this world. These artists don’t try to confront the coming age by arming themselves with new expressions and ideas. Rather, they draw a mysterious chaos from the inside, and strive to sublimate it into an original artistic realm.
Koichi Hiraki is one of those artists who occupy themselves with their inner world, rather than the zeitgeist. He appears to be trying to salvage a primordial scenery from his subliminal world. Hiraki’s method of representation is characterized by original colors and composition, as well as a matiere resembling stucco. Images formed in his subliminal realm reappear as crystal-like forms. With subdued colors, his paintings look like monochromes. It’s said that as a Formula 1 racer speeds up his machine, he sees his surroundings increasingly as a colorless world. Likewise, Hiraki’s concentration is so intense as to make the world, as conceived and represented by him, a monochrome one. This process opens to him a world unseen by others.
