In the unstoppable flow of the times, civilization has repeatedly risen and fallen, and human activities have been spun and unraveled. What would it look like if we took the moment of the present and looked at it from the future? What is the scenery reflected at that time, like human activities in the times?

 

Perhaps the shape of words is left there like a sign. Rosetta Stone, hieroglyphs, and some other meanings are spelled out, but they are carved like mysterious keywords and are as attractive as they are.
 

Characters, which were at the forefront of the media of the times, also have a genealogy as an art that evokes many images of words. Among them is the field of "calligraphy" that originated in China. This time, I would like to introduce the character aspects of the two artists of contemporary books that unfold in front of us, who are at the forefront of time.

 

The work of Kimihiko Hino (1975-) is set in the city of Tokyo, where Hino himself lives. At the center of the work are signboards that appear like afterimages in the landscape, and "letters" that are cut out from the whirlpool of words that are flooded in modern society, even violent. The overflowing languages that have both humor and cynicalism, but are imprinted on the mind by the artist's keen sensitivity. The "Special Sale" and "Uber Eats", which were carefully selected and written while scraping off the margins, are familiar to modern people, but by the way, decades later, Or it is a momentary modern word that no one knows whether it will exist in the future world hundreds of years from now. Hard brush strokes such as Hino's manga and scribbles feel the lightness and danger of running away from our thoughts living in the present. If they were a perfectly calculated collection of lines, I would find it terrifyingly interesting.

 

Guunakayama (1975-) was born and raised in a remote island called Iki in Nagasaki. Inspired by the oracle bone script, the one-letter expression is the environment surrounding nature-rich writers such as "flowers," "birds," and "moons." In recent years, as he continues to produce, the emotions, consciousness, and muttering that can be called a kind of "boyaki" that are born in the writer's heart have come to appear as unique symbolic characters. The group of works this time is "dirt (dirt = dust, mud, filth, dust, dirt)" which started production last year.

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"I felt that I was the one who crawls around like mud, but I can't help it." Gu said, "The character becomes a three-dimensional object and wanders around the city." It was also developed as a documentary with the cooperation of Hashiguchi Rintaro, a resident calligrapher. The unique and free-form characters written in vivid red and light blue that boldly cross the space give off an energetic image. It is interesting that this artist's act of writing confirms that he continues to evolve to the next stage.

 

In this way, the experimental expression of "modern books", which can be said to be an archive of thoughts of individuals or the entire era, is now becoming a new domain beyond the domain of conventional words or letters. Moreover, their expressions cannot be overlooked because the accumulation of individual thoughts is the wave itself of this unfamiliar era. It is an artistic activity that you cannot take your eyes off, and there is no doubt that they are artists with outstanding sense and potential.

 

Nao Masaki