Artist Statement

One of the most important topics for me in this Expo was the timeless message conveyed by Taro Okamoto’s Tower of the Sun—how it resonates across generations—and what kind of creation we can bring into the present in response to that message.

In our time, writing has shifted from something we do by hand to something we type, something that is displayed. This is, of course, a sign of civilization’s progress, but at the same time, I believe it also marks a gradual loss of the original power that writing once held when it first emerged.

Long ago, language was born from the need to share the intangible. But spoken words, being vibrations in the air, vanish the moment they are uttered. And yet, it was out of the intense human desire—not to let those words disappear, whether out of love or resistance—that writing came into existence, as a means to transcend time.

My work for this Expo, anima harmonizer, embodies the idea of overlapping, harmonizing, and resonating souls. It is a creature born from imagination. Countless shapeless souls drift through space, and from them, droplets of emotion slowly drip down. These droplets gather, eventually beginning to move with the rhythm of life. From within that motion, a creature-like form emerges and begins to resound with the voice of the soul. It is the moment of birth for a creature of language born in the contemporary world. I expressed this kind of fairy tale through the use of simple movements, forms, and repetitions—drawing on the visual language of pictographs.

Whether it's the development of civilization or the growth of an individual, the process always involves division. I believe this is inevitable. And yet, it is precisely through the act of reintegrating these divided parts—sometimes just barely holding them together—that a deeper, greater spirit can be born from within. Inside each person are many selves that have split off over time. And even so, the purity that we all once had in our childhood never truly dies—it remains, quietly, deep within us. I hope this work will transcend time and continue to resonate with that purity in people’s hearts, offering them strength.

I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Aichi Metal Co., whose tremendous efforts made this project possible, as well as to the team at Gallery NAO MASAKI and the staff of the Expo Art Festival. Thank you so much.

ハシグチリンタロウ